Students from the Aesthetics & Values class of the FIU Honors College assisted The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark to construct Garbage Wall for the 2017 Untitled Miami Beach art fair. Students collected marine debris from the Deering Estate to be utilized in the construction of the sculpture. The students then assisted Jane Crawford, widow of Gordon Matta-Clark, and Jessamyn Fiore, Director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, to construct “Garbage Wall.” The collaboration was initiated by Omar Lopez-Chaoud, Artistic Director of UNTITLED. Carolina Wheat-Nielsen also assisted in coordinating the project.
To acknowledge the first Earth Day on April 22 1970, Gordon Matta-Clark created Garbage Wall as part of a four-day performance of “a home street cycle growing from and returning to garbage.” The following year he recreated and refined the piece in reaction to the homelessness crisis in New York City, employing his architectural training to construct a durable building element from recycled materials that could be made by anyone. For the sixth edition of Untitled, Miami Beach, The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark will work with students from the Florida International University Honors College to create a version of Matta-Clark’s Garbage Wall with marine debris collected from Miami’s Deering Estate. The films Fire Child (1970) and Day’s End (1975) by Gordon Matta-Clark will also be on view.
Photos of Garbage Wall construction at Untitled Miami Beach
Photos of Marine debris cleanup at Deering Estate Gallery
Read Reviews of Matta-Clark’s Garbage Wall
ArtNews: Sarah Douglas, “Exactly What Kind of Trash Is on View at the Untitled Fair?”
Hyperallergic: Monica Uszerowicz, “Glimpses of Our Strange, Painful World at the Untitled Art Fair”
AUTHOR(S) AND LAST UPDATE Stephanie Sepúlveda &John William Bailly 01 April 2018
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