Pier 52

This body of work tracks the inhabitation, abandonment, reclaiming, re-inhabitation, destruction and reconstruction of Pier 52 on the Hudson River, NYC, through the lens of Gordon Matta-Clark’s monolithic work ‘Days End’. Pier 52 leaps off from the construction of Matta-Clark’s ‘Days End’ in 1975 through the filming of Arch Browns pornographic movie ‘Pier Groups’ in 1979 and arrives at David Hammons’ contemporary sculptural reimagining of Pier 52 in his 2021 work ‘Days End’. 

 

Weaving together historic and contemporary footage, found and generated soundscapes, on location and imagined imagery with performative activations editions of Pier 52 are multi-faceted and site responsive. Pier 52 is in direct collaboration with the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark. 

 

Pier 52 was originally commissioned in 2021 by Middlesbrough Art Weekender as a live art response to Gordon Matta-Clark’s film ‘Days End’. This initial work was used as a launch pad for further exploration and with support from the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark Bordello Collective traveled to New York in early 2023 to research and develop the concepts and connections attached to both Matta-Clark’s and Hammons’ respective ‘Days Ends’ and to explore the physical site on the Hudson River that housed Pier 52. 

This research and development resulted in an edition of Pier 52 staged at Epsilon Spires Arts Centre in Brattleboro, Vermont. 

 

Like the layers of basalt and sandstone that underlie the Hudson River basin and supports the footings of the pier each edition of Pier 52 builds on the last and in their very nature each echo the cyclical construction, deconstruction, reconstruction and reinvention of Pier 52 and the cultural and social transformations it held and upholds.