City Slivers And Fresh Kills: The Films Of Gordon Matta-Clark

by Steven Jenkins

Images of the deconstruction of abandoned buildings and industrial structures are closely associated with "anarchitect" Gordon Matta-Clark. Here, however, are the film works through which Matta-Clark furthered his lifelong excavation of urban dwellings. In this book, San Francisco Cinematheque presents a retrospective of the moving-image works through which Matta-Clark explored his aesthetic assumptions and philosophical inquiry. Featuring rarely published images and a quartet of imaginative essays, City Slivers and Fresh Kills establishes Matta-Clark's films as perhaps his most surprising, and certainly most viscerally arresting body of work, characterized by the same creative provocation, rough aesthetic beauty and intellectual insight that idefined his signature architectural cuttings and slicings.

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2004

About the author

Steven Jenkins is a cultural critic.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

put together well. cool little book. matta-clark inspires me to execute art. it's a brief book. It might take you an hour at most. Leaves me wanting more--but then again what is there to know but find the films, watch them; go and do art.
easily have read four or five times.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

intersection of architecture, cinema, and urban demolition!