The Edge of Perception: Gordon Matta-Clark’s Hermeneutic of Place and the Possibilities of Absence for the Theological Imagination

This article places the conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark in conversation with hermeneutical debates within field of theological aesthetics. By exploring transformative effect Matta-Clark’s Splitting evokes on spatially related categories, I argue that place is a locus meaning, and absence constitutive feature meaning. The hermeneutics at play have set formal features which accord certain positions aesthetics, namely: particularities over generalities space, role both presence for perception, formative power these human identity. A final section argues while meaning embedded place, imagination retains vital process through its “imaging” function events perception.