Fire Child
Gordon Matta-Clark
Fire Child, 1971
Film, 16mm, transferred from Super-8-film, color, silent, 9 min 47 sec Edition 1/10
GF0000199.00.0-1995
Artwork text
Matta-Clark made several works as part of the Brooklyn Bridge Event (22 to 24 May, 1971) organized by Alanna Heiss for the 100th anniversary of the famous bridge. This film documents the gradual creation of a sculpture, a little wall of rubbish, used paper, and tin cans, which the artist collected from the surroundings of the Brooklyn Bridge and pressed into wire netting. Matta-Clark had already set up a similar Garbage Wall a year earlier, at St. Mark’s Church in New York. At that time the sculpture was used for a performance and was then destroyed. City archaeology and recycling are two of the central themes in Matta-Clark’s work. (Sabine Breitwieser)