Art & Spirituality – Gordon Matta-Clark’s Descending Steps for Batan (1977)

The work of Gordon Matta-Clark appears perhaps more obviously suited to discussion in the context of Art & Architecture. Descending Steps for Batan is a performance/document carried out by Matta-Clark in 1977 in response to the suicide of his brother, Sebastian Matta, a painter who suffered from mental illness. For the duration of the exhibition, Matta-Clarke dug into the ground beneath the gallery floor, carving out a rudimentary flight of descending stairs. The dirt steps led downward but nowhere in particular, their final destination arbitrarily decided by the end of the exhibition period. Afterwards the hole was filled in. Descending Steps is one of my favourite of Matta-Clark’s works. Often it seems that much of what is described as spiritual in art exists on a grand, all encompassing scale. Matta-Clark’s simple work describes overwhelming loss and guilt, and I feel it is just as effective. To me, this hole in the floor speaks of transcendence.

Figure 1: Gordon Matta-Clark, Descending Steps for Batan (1977), Cibachrome 40 x 30 in.