brettsing

+ i saw

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Gordon Matta-Clark at MCA.

Today Wesley and I ventured into the city with two specific missions in mind: to visit Luxe Home (which really reminded me why I want to be an interior designer) at the Merchandise Mart (b/c I decided Wesley needed to see it) and to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art (because Tuesday is the free day… apparently brought to us by Target) The largest exhibit space contained the work of one mister Gordon Matta-Clark.

From Wikipedia: He is most famous for works that radically altered existing structures. His “building cuts” (in which, for example, a house is cut in half vertically) alter the perception of the building and its surrounding environment.

There were quite a lot of really cool pieces. My favorite consisted of three pieces of an exterior wall of a house, all cut to the same height and width, however they weren’t consecutive pieces… they contained different parts. The wall is presented with the exterior of the house showing first, as you walk around it… you view the inside (shown below in another gallery)

Though some were done legally, a large number of his “building cuts” were done illegally in abandoned buildings in boroughs of New York City. He actually had (from what I read on the wall) at least 1 warrant out for his arrest, though I would imagine that there were more. The way he cut the buildings (inside of them) was especially deliberate. He didn’t just cut them anywhere, he cut them in places that would open up the space in some way and allow it to be seen differently.

Many of the abandoned buildings that he altered were demolished, and to document we are left with photographs (which was largely what the exhibit consisted of) as well as some of the pieces he actually removed. Though it was quite cool to look at the pieces, the overall point in most cases had to be understood through the photograph. (To me anyway–if you’re altering space, the piece you removed won’t tell you quite as much about it as the result after it was removed.)

All in all, it was quite an interesting, cool, and very fun Chicago day. Days like this remind me why I love this city so much. For anyone interested and in Chicago, his exhibit runs through May 4. There were also quite a few other cool exhibits that you can learn about at The Museum of Contemporary Art website.

In other news:

No news on the job front yet.
I got to hang out with Brandon B. today, he was in for work as per his usual for Tuesday nights. Normally I can’t hang out during the small window of time he has in which to hang out, because I have to pick Wesley up in Aurora during those times. However, today Wesley was off, so it finally worked out. Even though I was quite tired, I treked back into the city for a visit. It was quite fun, and very good to see him.

Well, I should attempt to sleep I suppose…
Brett Patrick Casey :o)