John Galt Bottle: Matta-Clark

This is a John Galt bottle from the Golden Age of Art series. Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times called this series “bottled essences,” although Galt sees them less as ‘summations’ and more as visual critiques – the realm that exists outside of a written and spoken language. The contents of this jar begins with two aspects of Gordon Matta-Clark: his legendary big heart and the hole cutting tradition found in many of his projects but once they are brought together the associations quickly grow. Galt says the language of these jars is “huh?” or “mmm, yes!” He calls it “light bulb” language, as in…the content (and response) is either on or off or on it’s way to exploding in your hand.