Woven Explosion (Mondrian Under Pressure) (1984) by Dennis OppenheimMOMus - Museum of Contemporary Art - Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections
Woven Explosion (Mondrian Under Pressure), 1984
Oppenheim's first steps as an artist were taken in association with Kienholz, with whom he created Neo-Dadaist works that he later destroyed. His entire oeuvre expresses his personal involvement with the problems raised by the role of art and its limits...
...and the role of artists and their communication with their public. In this he attempts to debunk the mechanisms of Western life and to arouse awareness. Thus, at the end of the '60s, finding the confines of art galleries limiting in terms of the art that can be shown there...
Ground tremor, 1984
...Oppenheim turned to Land Art, particularly in areas far from the centers of the art world. In the '70s his need to create works unrestricted by spatial boundaries and accepted formal conventions led him to chart the interior space of thought and ideas.
Ground tremor (1984) by Dennis OppenheimMOMus - Museum of Contemporary Art - Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections
He sought the underlying intention behind the artistic act
(Conceptual Art), and the cerebral stimuli that guide the artist. His concern with the relationship between artists, their speculation, and their public is clearly apparent in his works on the theme of the artist as marionette.
Radiator, 1984
"Radiator" (wood plus a real object) depicts a human head. Inside of the head, which is empty, a disco ball is levitating, an object which we usually see in clubs and entertainment spaces and is also spinning by an electric motor, creating a spinning light effect.
Radiator (1984) by Dennis OppenheimMOMus - Museum of Contemporary Art - Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections
Through the use of wood and mirror, the artist is referring to the brain’s functions. The ball that floats inside the head symbolizes the brain and its operation, as an instrument that receives information, it processes them and then it diffuses them.
Similarly with the way the human brain collects stimulations, the light hits the little rectangular surfaces of the mirror and reflects creating multiple sequential shinning.
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.