Thu 3 Mar 2011
6.30pm- Gallery Talk
Jane Crawford, film-maker and director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, discusses the significance and influence of the innovative New York alternative space 112 Greene Street on Matta-Clark and his peers.
In the 1970's, vast areas of lower Manhattan in New York were empty. Industries moved out of the city, there was a mistrust in the government, high rates of unemployment and crime, the many anti-Vietnam war protest marches. In a city faced with an economic crisis, a group of artists (painters sculptors dancers filmakers musicians) began occupying the large empty factory spaces in SoHo, transforming them into studios in where to work and live. Artists shared spaces, helped each other and collaborated in projects that were experimental and valued new ideas of process over the finished outcome. The streets and the factory spaces were used as setting for the work, because they were empty and for free. The white cube gallery space in where to show and sell the work became innapropriate and redudant for these artists creating artwork impossible to sell. Art was for artsake, not for money.
The 112 Green Street Gallery opened to give home to this new ideology. The space was bought by Jeffrey Lew and was used by the emerging SoHo vibrant art community to show a kind of art that nobody was interested in. There wasn't a programme of exhibitions or a curator in charge. Artwork went up and was taken down by the artists themselves who agreed in advance who was going to show and when. 112 Green Street allowed artists be free to create, explore and experiment new ideas. Collaboration and cross over of artforms: dancers versus artists dancers, filmakers versus artists filmakers.
Look also at : FOOD (artist run restaurant), Avalanche (magazine), Anarchitecture group, Alan Saret, Richard Serra, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris, Richard Nonas, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Reiner, Judson Group, Dan Graham, Lawrence Weiner, Bruce Nauman, Bruce McLean, Barry Le Va....
8pm- Duets on Ice
Laurie Anderson performs one of her earliest works Duets on Ice (1974–75), an intimate performance with violin, recorded accompaniment and ice skates.
