The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions 		(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Into The Light 		(spacer)
(spacer)
Into The Light

Artists in the Exhibition


Dennis Oppenheim (American, born 1938)
Echo, 1973

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists attempted to break through what they perceived to be the impasse of the gallery space in a number of ways. The walls of the gallery, in particular, seemed to symbolize physical and psychological restriction.

In Echo, four black-and-white projections show Oppenheim's hand slapping the gallery walls, the sound of each strike reverberating. Using his own body, Oppenheim pared the language of mark-making down to its most direct form: the surface of the artist's body meeting the surface of the wall. The body's most elemental force-its energy-makes concrete the boundary between the inner self and the external world. This boundary is further underlined by the soundtrack of four loud echoes, which ricochet around the space. Their reverberations form a trace of Oppenheim's slapping movements, defining the space in aural terms, and suggesting the possibility of breaking through its physical limits.


About Dennis Oppenheim
Born 1938, Electric City, Washington
Lives in New York, New York

Dennis Oppenheim is recognized as a pioneer of earth art and an innovator in conceptual art. He is one of the most experimental artists of his time, and has used ice, wind, fire, water, metals, fabric, ether, earth and light in his art making. In the early 1970s, he was among the vanguard of artists who used film and video in relation to performance. In a series of works created between 1970 and 1974, Oppenheim explored individual peril, alteration, and communication, using his body in ritualistic performance actions and interactions, such as Reading Position for Second Degree Burn and Attempt to Raise Hell. In the 1980s Oppenheim broke new ground with a series of exploding outdoor sculptures entitled Fireworks.


Page 9 of 16 | On the next page: Vito Acconci (American, born 1940)
Other Voices for a Second Sight, 1974