Bodies in Space: Spatial Practice and Spatial Representations in the Work of Francesca Woodman and Gordon Matta-Clark

Abstract

This is a thesis about two artists prolific in the 1970s. Moreover, this is a thesis about the body and space, and about the indivisible relationship between the artistic process--the spatial practice--and the works produced--the spatial representations. Part 1, Spatial Practice, is informed by Henri Lefebvre (The Production of Space, 1974). Lefebvre’s spatial theory provides a starting point for approaching the dialectically abstract and concrete realms of space with regard to the artist’s making. Part 2, Spatial Representations, is informed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and other phenomenologists. Discussions of perception are useful in support of a comparative analysis of the photographs by Woodman and Matta-Clark, which invite the viewer to fully embody the experience of seeing with. The thesis structure reflects the conceptual framework of temporarily abstracting and dividing the indivisible, in an examination of Francesca Woodman’s photography and the building cuts and photographs of Gordon Matta-Clark. The discussion begins with the artist’s body in space, and ends with the viewer’s body in space.