Dennis Oppenheim Sculpture

Artist Oppenheim to create splash with light fountains

Originally known for his pioneering work in the emerging fields of land art and body art in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dennis Oppenheim has focused on permanent, large-scale works that fuse sculpture and architecture since the mid-1990s. His Radiant Fountains, a Houston Arts Alliance commission for the Houston Airport System, is expected to be completed by fall. Inspired by the idea of a recurring splash created by a perpetually falling drop of water, the ambitious sculpture comprises monumental towers that will be illuminated from within by light-emitting diodes. It will be visible from both the air and ground at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Oppenheim's exhibition at Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery features sculptures and drawings related to Radiant Fountains, along with models and proposals from other public projects.

Q: I don't remember when I first heard you did public art, but I remember being surprised.

A: It's funny how somebody lands into the public-art sector. A lot of them do it kicking and screaming. I never thought I'd be involved in something that required such deliberation and almost corporate organization and long-term planning. I mean, I used to do things quickly and sporadically. Body art was always spontaneous. Land art was, too, actually.

So it came as a surprise, but we find ourselves at odd junctions in this journey, and one of them is this sort of tendency to use up the fine-arts sector early - galleries and museums - and find yourself wanting another context. ... It can also be that all the museums that want to support you have done so, and there's no one left, so you have to go and reinvent yourself.

But there are some obvious things about public art that would appear attractive to artists. I mean, the fact that you can have work in these extraordinary locations. You could never do that otherwise. And you get to fuse with architecture. Right now, there's this interesting conversation between architecture and sculpture in which public art is finding a point of inclusion. It's kind of cutting edge. There's some cutting-edge cross-fertilization of these two forms. It's certainly feeding architects like Frank Gehry and the rest of them. They're off and running, and some people think they're actually in advance of how sculpture has evolved.

But it gets mixed up once you inject fine art. You have applied art and fine art, so once you inject fine art into this discourse, it gets a little murky. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. You would have to believe it's a higher mission to pursue public art, which has a social aspect, than to continue with fine art. ... But we don't want to leave (fine art) alone. So I don't know if anyone working in these sectors is totally at peace with their belief system.

Q: Tell me about your project at the airport.

A: The initial idea about the splash was simply that a phenomenon as simple as a water drop can could create an upheaval. That would be interesting to a sculptor - the fact that you could have that effect from a simple event. ... So that was the prelude, but then the idea of the fountain became more prevalent. But what we have there is potentially an extremely lively spectacle.

I also told them about this roadside attraction I used to see as a child in Oakland, Calif., driving on the Bayshore Freeway. It was a Sherwin-Williams paint sign, which was animated. It was the world globe and then a bucket of paint dripping on top of it, and this captivated me. I told them quite frankly that I would be extremely satisfied if I accomplished something like that, because it really did capture the ongoing traffic. I also said that it would be nice if these works were so ... whatever ... that people would turn around and come back to see them again.

But I think that what we have there in terms of the light capacity is going to be potentially overwhelming. I think we'll have to tune it down a little. It's like fireworks.