Park update: On September 7, the Spur and High Line Connector at 30th Street will be closed. From September 8 – 9, the Spur, High Line Connector, and Coach Passage at 30th Street will be closed.
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Gordon Matta-Clark
City Slivers
To launch High Line Channel 22, High Line Art is collaborating with Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) to present Gordon Matta-Clark’s City Slivers, a film created in 1976 and originally projected on the exterior façade of the Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan during the Arcades exhibition.
Matta-Clark’s City Slivers is an ode to New York City’s landscape. Using photograph mattes to partially cover the camera lens, Matta-Clark fragmented the film frame into narrow vertical strips that offer glimpses of urban life and captures the syncopated rhythm and texture of the city. The film features scenes such as aerial views of taxi-filled avenues, the Empire State Building presiding over the Manhattan skyline, and people moving through revolving doors, with many of the viewpoints contrasting the static presence of the buildings and architectural structures against the ceaseless flow of traffic and pedestrians.
Photos by Austin Kennedy.
Artist bio
Gordon Matta-Clark (b. 1943, New York – d. 1978, New York) lived and worked in New York City. In the 1970s, Matta-Clark participated in numerous group exhibitions and community projects, such as his role as a founding member of the artist-run restaurant Food in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. His work has been presented worldwide, featured in Documenta V, Kassel, Germany, and at exhibitions in Sao Paolo, Berlin, Zurich, and in the 9th Biennale de Paris. Important retrospective exhibitions have been organized posthumously at institutions around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany; IVAM Centro Julio Gonzalez, Valencia, Spain; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Matta-Clark’s work is represented in many prominent public collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum van Hedendaagst Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Support
High Line Channel is presented by Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. High Line Art Commissions are made possible by Donald R. Mullen, Jr., with additional support from Vital Projects Fund, Inc. High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.