Tina Girouard, Carol Goodden and Gordon Matta-Clark in front of Food, 1971; Photo: Richard Landry with alteration by Gordon Matta-Clark. Courtesy Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / David Zwirner, New York
The second edition of Frieze New York (10 – 13 May) will organize a special tribute to FOOD, the legendary restaurant opened in October 1971 by Gordon Matta-Clark and Carol Goodden in collaboration with other artists. This is a part of Frieze Projects paying homage to artist-run spaces and initiatives that have defined and transformed the cultural and artistic history of New York City. Below is an excerpt from Joan Simon’s interview with Carol Goodden in the exhibition catalogue “Gordon Matta-Clark: A Retrospective”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1985.*
[…] The idea of food often ran through Gordon’s pieces. The piece under the Brooklyn Bridge was accompanied by the pig and the pig was accompanied by 500 ham sandwiches. He would take photographs and then fry them like eggs (Photo-Fry, 1969). They ended up looking like his agar pieces (Agar, 1969–70). He liked his works to fall apart – to transmute. He didn’t like anything precious. He was a very imaginative cook. I remember quali-egg-and-onion salads, for instance. He liked to drink tequila or Tabasco sauce – either or both at the same time; he could down a whole bottle of either without showing any signs of torture.
He became very involved in Food. He thought of the restaurant as one big sculpture. He designed everything in it – the tables, counter, low stove, cooking pots, wonderful looking containers and cooking utensils (which we could never afford to build). I still have some drawing for them. He made a film of Food and spent hours editing it with filmmaker Bob Flore’s help. Robert Capa manned the sound detail.
It was Gordon’s idea to have guest-chef days. There were numerous artists who were guest chefs; Mark di Suvero was going to serve meals with his crane through the window (but he never did). Gordon’s meals were the most talked about. There was a bone dinner. We served 100 people that night – plates filled with chicken bones, beef bones stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms, frog legs, marrow bones. Richard Peck was in the back scrubbing bones that people had finished eating and Hisachiki Takahashi (our friendly jeweler) drilled holes through the bones. We strung them on rope and handed the bones back to the customers as necklaces so they could wear their dinners home. Another of Gordon’s famous dinners was the time he served live brine shrimp in the hollow of a hard-boiled egg sliced in half. Pretty with parsley, the plates were all set carefully in front of the customers. With great delight Gordon watched the reactions: Jackie Winsor actually ate hers; I think Liza Bear screamed. Some people promptly got up and left; others just stared at the live shrimp. And Jeffrey – Jeffrey Lew was always there, laughing and hugging and loving Gordon for everything he did and everything he said.
While we were putting Food together, there was a piece of wall that had to come out. Gordon decided to cut himself a wall-sandwich: he cut a horizontal section through the wall and the door and fell in love with it. And so the cutting pieces began. But in between the first cut and next few came Wallspaper (1972). Gordon loved to walk around the city to discover exposed party walls from razed buildings. […]”
*Joan Simon “Interviews” from the catalogue “Gordon Matta Clark: A Retrospective”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1985) was reprinted in the monograph “Gordon Matta-Clark” published by Phaidon in 2003.
Menu of “Matta Bone Dinner” at Food, New York City, October 1972. Courtesy Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / David Zwirner, New York
Gordon Matta Clark at Food, New York City, 1971–72. Courtesy Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / David Zwirner, New York
View of Food after renovations, Nw York City, 1971–72. Courtesy Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / David Zwirner, New York