Kids

16 / 28

Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974 122

Building fragments: painted wood, metal, plaster, and glass, three sections, Overall 69" x 25' 7" x 10" (175.3 x 779.8 x 25.4 cm). Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest Fund, Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest Fund, and the Enid A. Haupt Fund. © 2024 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Learning Specialist, Sarah Dinkelacker: Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m here at MoMA with Zack.

Zack: Hi, my name is Zach and I’m here with Sarah.

Sarah: And we are looking at Gordon Matta-Clark’s Bingo.

Should we get a little closer and see what we notice?

Zack: Yep.

Sarah: Okay.

Zack: I see a hole!

Sarah: A hole? What else do you see?

Zack: Oh, that’s the stairs.

Sarah: Are you surprised to see this inside of a museum?

Zack: Yeah! Was this a big building?

Sarah: This is made by an artist. His name is Gordon Matta-Clark. And before he was an artist, he was an architect. Do you know what an architect is?

Zack: Yeah, they build.

Sarah: Exactly, they build things. But he didn’t build this house. This house was gonna get knocked down. So he decided before they knocked it down that he was gonna chop it up.

How many pieces do you see? Can you count with me?

Zack: One, two, three…

Sarah: Originally there were nine pieces.

Zack: Where’s the rest?

Sarah: That’s a great question. So, he took all nine pieces and he cut them off of the facade, which is a word for the front of the house. And then, he threw them next to the river. Except for these three, and they came to the museum!

And then the rest of the house—the sides and the back—it was knocked down right after. They worked on this for ten days, cutting up the house.

Zack: Yeah.

Sarah: And when he cut the house into nine pieces it reminded him of a bingo board.

Zack: Bingo!