In our video recap of the Transformation Project Walk, Katy Mike Smaistrla, Education and Volunteer Coordinator at Earthways Center, explains the structure above, which a Construction Careers Center shop class built as part of their workshop with the Pulitzer, Earthways Center and the Lawrence Group. Last Thursday, the program, which was inspired by the Garbage Wall and formulated to teach sustainable design, drew to a close.

For the final session, representatives from the partnering organizations met with the students in their computer lab to discuss what was accomplished over the past few months. Everyone sat in a circle and took turns explaining what they learned. Afterwards, the class filled out surveys on the computers, as I pulled a few students out into the hallway for some digital feedback. Here is what those students had to say:

One of the key players for the CCC program was Teaching Artist Jackie Masei. In the following video, she describes a session on “building sustainable communities,” as the students work with one another to arrange models of communities out of random objects given to them. You can tell in the 2-minute clip that those kids have a lot of energy; it’s nice to know they may be championing green construction in the future.

As we’ve said before, part of the Pulitzer’s identity is that it doesn’t have labels for the artwork, however for the next three weeks, the Ando building will boldly declare its address in neon, as part of 2010 Whitney Biennial winner Theaster Gates’ exhibition Dry Bones and Other Parables from the North.

Dry Bones will open this Saturday along with three projects during the Transformation Project Walk. In case you haven’t been reading the news or listening to St. Louis Public Radio, the Walk will be a big bash that concludes all of the community programming we’ve worked on throughout the Matta-Clark exhibition. Similar in scope to The Light Project, the Walk will be one of those special events that encourages all of St. Louis to explore the Grand Center neighborhood and experience each unique project site.

This Saturday, May 15, from 3-7pm, the Pulitzer will provide a shuttle and trolley service to those who want to see what Transformation has accomplished this spring. Each stop will exhibit inspired works by program participants, which are sure to demonstrate how art can affect social change and further conversation on the St. Louis urban landscape. For a full description of the event and programs, visit this page.

Robert Longyear talks about the chairs in his installation and how they relate to the theme of “congregation.” Like Gordon Matta-Clark, who used titles like “A W-Hole House” and “Reality Properties / Fake Estates,” Robert also incorporates word play into his artwork. For more information on his project visit the Urban Evolution blog.

Tuesday morning, students from a Construction Careers Center shop class toured Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark for the first time. They have been hearing about the exhibition for months. Last fall, while requesting garbage donations, Jenny Murphy and Lisa Harper Chang visited CCC, a construction-focused charter school, to talk about Gordon Matta-Clark’s work and sustainable design. Jane Crawford made a special appearance at the school during the week the Wall was constructed.

In early February of this year, the Pulitzer, along with the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Earthways Center and the Lawrence Group, began the current program. Representatives from each organization and a teaching artist have been meeting with the class for lessons on community building, sustainability and design. The students are planning with their teacher to eventually build their own version of the Garbage Wall.

Faydreauna, a student at Construction Careers Center, shares her observations on Garbage Wall.

During my first shift as a Gallery Assistant at the Pulitzer, I rotated into the Entrance Gallery and was confronted by Garbage Wall.

After spending the last month and a half collecting this garbage from around St. Louis, I stood there and realized how little time I had spent with the finished piece.

My eyes scanned over the objects in the wall, and I recognized all of them! At the sight of each piece of garbage, I was taken back to a day in the collection process. I spotted the section of a brick wall that students at Wash U found during our neighborhood clean-up, caution tape that was left in a donation box in the art room at Metro High School, and shoes collected from a local thrift store’s dumpster. I remembered touching each object (with gloves of course) as I moved it from a school, curb, or dumpster, into my truck bed, and finally into the workshop where Garbage Wall was constructed. I felt lucky to have had this experience that connected me to the piece in a very unique and exciting way.

As I stood in my GA position, I discovered how almost every visitor also developed a personal connection with the Wall. Visitors spent a lot of time trying to discern what each object was and making connections between the objects in the wall and those they own or those they have thrown away. A group of three women spent at least five minutes walking around the piece pointing out objects and telling stories. One of the women told her two friends how she used to have a pair of diving fins but lent them to her grandson who was going snorkeling while on vacation with his girlfriend. Pointing to a sneaker with The Misfits skeleton printed on it, a young woman told her mom that she used to have that exact pair of shoes. One man pointed at a computer keyboard and swore it was just like one he had at home. Another visitor stood in front of Garbage Wall and exclaimed, “Looks like you guys went through my trash. This all looks like my garbage!”

Upon hearing her observation, my mind fresh with memories of a month spent traveling around St. Louis collecting garbage, I thought to myself, “It just might be.”

Courtney holds up lost Reebok sneaker.

A single shoe. I picture either a perfectly content one legged man or a rather upset runner contemplating trashing his solo sneaker. Either way, lefty remains.

Sometimes strange things get left at the front desk of the Pulitzer. Cups of coffee, half eaten apples, earrings; little pieces of life we shed from time to time. The shoe first appeared after a symposium several months ago. The shoe was brought in by the driver who transported the participants to and from the hotel, so I assumed that we would hear again from one of the scholars eventually.

But there it sat and sort of became forgotten. It wasn’t until install for Urban Alchemy that it was noticed again. The prospect of the shoe being added to the Garbage Wall gave its loneliness additional meaning. Often a lost object is seen just as trash. In Matta-Clark’s day, could this shoe become shelter?

In Gordon Matta-Clark’s work, often what isn’t there is more important than what is being shown. For instance the exhibition displays photos that show where the displayed sculptural fragments originally existed, but truthfully the real work has long been gone–another building destroyed in the name of progress. The lost shoe also brings to mind its counterpart and the human who may very well be missing it. So it’s a reference for the human condition. (Also a reminder of another work that has been shown at the Pulitzer; Atribiliarios, by Doris Salcedo.) So it’s that a single object, when missing its pair, can cause another human to ponder about the other half and have a sense of hope for reuniting the two.

The shoe is not in the Garbage Wall. I thought a plea on the internet for its long lost owner might be better, because there’s still a chance the owner will be reunited with his sole mate. If you would like to claim this shoe please contact chenson@pulitzerarts.org.  You will need to provide the other one as proof.

Look/Listen

Ecology of Absence

Architectural Ruminations

StudioSTL

Rustwire.com

Urban Review STL

Dotage-St. Louis, Missouri

UEU314

Art-Patrol

Digging Pit

Please feel free to leave links to any other posts on Urban Alchemy in “comments.” And thank you to all who have helped spread the word about this exhibition in any way.

Pulitzer visitors talk about Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

Thank you for sharing, everyone.

We beseech you too, dear readers, to tell us what you think of Urban Alchemy, in the galleries and online, here in this very blog’s “comments” and on our Urban Alchemy Facebook group, and wherever else you want to talk about it. As they say, “We want to hear from you!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Art handlers move a re-creation of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Garbage Wall from a construction space into the Pulitzer galleries, before adding the final touches of trash to its exterior.

Finally, here’s a glimpse at the Garbage Wall we’ve been blogging about for several weeks. Look closely at the video of it being moved into the building, and perhaps you’ll see a sneaker you threw out during bulk trash week.

Visit Transformation’s landing page for a video of the initial assembling of the Wall, which features Jane Crawford talking about its history.

Art handlers install Gordon Matta-Clark’s Wallspaper.

With titles such as “Pier In/Out” and “Reality Properties: Fake Estates,” Matta-Clark is known for his fondness for word play. “Wallspaper” is another example. Wallspaper consists of photographs of the interior walls of dilapidated buildings, which have been reproduced as colored prints and stapled to a wall, playing with the idea of wall paper.

With the opening of Urban Alchemy / Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition fast approaching, I am in anxious anticipation. For two months I have identified and connected Matta-Clark’s work to my field of study, social work, and my passion, social justice. Matta-Clark’s work allows us to explore new avenues of social change. Re-thinking. Re-using. Re-visioning. Re-newing. The work encourages us to re-visit our systems of value, our ability to make an impact, to hope and command change. We are asked to see our world a bit differently and acknowledge pieces of our world that frequently go forgotten. Matta-Clark was particularly drawn to the homeless population of his era. He sought to provide hope to those who had not been afforded or allowed it. He wanted to empower the homeless by re-thinking trash to create stable housing structures (e.g., the garbage walls). As a social worker, I am drawn to his work because he wished to address societal shortcomings through innovative approaches. Matta-Clark questioned societal norms and demanded change (visually, structurally, etc.). Perhaps we can renew our thoughts of social activism by way of transformation.–Emily Augsburger

Emily Augsburger is a practicum student from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Manager of Community Engagement Lisa Harper Chang describes ideas behind outreach programs for the past exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements, and for the upcoming Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark.

Looking back on last Spring’s Let’s Look and Staging Old Masters, Lisa Harper Chang considers the transformative power of art and how it will again be harnessed for the highly anticipated Urban Alchemy. The Pulitzer has already begun partnering with schools and artists for this exhibition, which opens October 30, and is planning a series of panel discussions on themes in Matta-Clark’s art. You can learn more about these and other exciting new programs on our budding website Transformation.

Transformation, tangible and abstract, was the essence of much of Matta-Clark’s work. With Garbage Wall, he reaped castoffs of everyday life and made them functional, visually compelling, and community building. He fried Polaroid pictures in Photo-Fry, intersecting the transfiguration that occurs in cooking, in film development, and in artistic creation. For Food, an artist-run/owned restaurant, Matta-Clark and his SoHo peers turned dinner into performance and a common space for neighbors. Most notably, he asked spectators to reevaluate the way they view architectural spaces, by cutting parts of buildings away.

Matta-Clark’s activism through creative acts easily relates to the activities on Transformation. For the site’s “Your St. Louis,” St. Louisans will be asked to relay stories and offer photos of their urban landscape and to perhaps, by learning what others have to share, further understand and value their city. In “Local Artists,” read how Robert Longyear and Jenny Murphy use art as a way to foster community, empower youth, and prompt questions about the value of discarded objects. Hear from North St. Louis’ Holy Trinity students on how they see their community as opposed to how it’s defined by outsiders.

Matta-Clark strived for inclusivity in his work. Besides being a resource on how art can foster community, we hope St. Louis residents will feel free to contribute to Transformation, in online discourse and “Your St. Louis” projects.