Completing the circle

One of the works in Justin Paton’s exhibition De-Building at the Christchurch Art Gallery is Gordon Matta-Clarks film of the construction and destruction, of his work Conical Intersect made in 1975. The piece was created by cutting a series of large holes into an old building that was marked for demolition on the Rue Beaubourg to make way for the public plaza in front of the Pompidou Museum.

The site of working-men hanging out of these gapping holes way above ground coupled with the slowly evolving shapes forming in the building's side caused quite a stir for passers by, most of whom stopped to have a look. One thing that stands out however, is that no-one photographs the extraordinary scene.

Passers-by look, point and often comment to the person standing next to them, but then walk on, the only record locked in their minds. There's not a camera to be seen. You can imagine the whirr and clicking that would accompany that sort of event today, and the subsequent rush of images to Flickr and FaceBook.

So in the spirit of our 21st century photograph-the-hell-out-of-everything culture here is photo of the event shot off the screen showing the film at the Christchurch Art Gallery.

Image: People not photographing the dramatic he destruction of the building at Rue Beaubourg and with it Matta Clark’s Conical Intersect. You can get a taste of the Matta-Clarks film here.