Zuma #14 1978

John Divola's 'Zuma #14' is a photograph, and it captures a moment that feels both accidental and deeply intentional. Divola often engages in this dance between destruction and creation, documenting abandoned spaces and their transformations. Look closely at the doorway; it's a frame within a frame, leading to a view of the ocean, the sky. There's a tension between the rough, charred textures of the ruined interior and the smooth, almost serene landscape visible through the opening. The burnt wood has a strange kind of beauty, its surface cracked and peeling, like a painter's impasto. It reminds me of Gordon Matta-Clark, who cut into buildings to reveal hidden spaces. Divola’s work, like Matta-Clark’s, invites us to reconsider our relationship to architecture and the passage of time. It shows the potential for art to emerge from the most unexpected places, finding beauty in decay and ruin. It's not about fixed meanings but embracing the messy, ambiguous nature of existence.