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With four interactive works that run through the Dietrich exhibition gallery at the Wellin Museum, Sarah Oppenheimer: Sensitive Machine breaks down the barriers between art, audience and architecture. The exhibition invites visitors to come into contact with the work of art through touch. The activation of a lever sets in motion a series of interconnected walls and lights that alter the configuration of the gallery and alter its lighting conditions. Oppenheimer sees the museum space as a site for experimentation, where visitors experience the curiosity and joy of transforming works of art themselves. Conceptually, the work explores how our actions – both individually and collectively – shape the spaces we inhabit and how those spaces embody a state of constant flux. The exhibition will be visible from September 4 to December 5. A video of the exhibition can be viewed here.
Tracy L. Adler, Johnson-Pote director of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, recently spoke about the artist and her work:
Question: What first attracted you to Oppenheimer’s work?
A: I have known Sarah for about 20 years and have organized her in exhibitions that I have
organized in New York. Through her large-scale works of art that respond to the architecture of the exhibition space, Sarah’s work addresses the impact of architecture on our daily lives and also poses the way we, as as inhabitants, let us affect our environment. When Wellin was founded in 2012, I started talking to Sarah about creating works for the museum. I knew Sarah would react thoughtfully to the unique architecture and materiality of the building. In 2017, we started seriously planning the show.
Question: How does the Hamilton Typography Workshop and this exhibit relate?
A: Four years ago when Sarah came for her first site visit, we arranged for her to visit Hamilton Typography, among other campus facilities. Andrew Rippeon, who was supervise the workshop at the time, and Sarah took one of the presses apart to reveal Mobius’ band-shaped screw that drove the press path. It was the spark of an idea that directly led to all of Sarah’s work that followed.
As a primary reviewer at Yale University School of Art, Sarah often works in collaboration
disciplines. She began to develop screws with the engineering department on the basis of the letterpress screw to drive her own works of art. In early 2020, the first iteration of this concept was carried out in his solo exhibition at the museum in Thun Art Museum in Swiss. What she learned about the functionality of the device and the screw turned into four works of art – or “instruments,” as Sarah calls them – that make up the exhibit you see at Wellin. This visit to Hamilton in 2017 completely changed the trajectory of his work.
Question: This show seems so far removed from what we traditionally think of as “art”. Where does it fit? What makes it art?
A: As an educational museum, the Wellin is ideally located to explore questions about how contemporary art supports our intellectual growth and influences our understanding of the world by questioning the basis of our assumptions about how we generally operate. “Is this art? Is an excellent starting point because it raises the question “What is art?” ” to start. But further still, how can art impact or reflect our lived experiences? It is an opportunity to explore and question the basis of our assumptions not only about art, but about our perception of the world around us.
Sarah’s work sits at the intersection of art, architecture and engineering, but on a basis
level, too, the show is very sensory. It activates touch and sight. The spectator becomes an agent of his experience, that is to say, he literally steers the works. Does the work exist without visitors to activate it? The work asks many questions and leaves the door open to a myriad of answers. In this way, it provides a springboard to engage many disciplines in thoughtful discussion.
It is also an experience. With each show we try to provide different opportunities for our audience to discover and think about how art can support learning more broadly. The Wellin is truly a laboratory where faculty, students, staff and the community can experiment with ideas reflecting the liberal arts experience in Hamilton.
Question: What are some of the ways that teachers associate their classes with the exhibit?
A: We discussed this show with professors of anthropology, computer science, dance, government, music, physics, psychology, sociology, drama, women and gender studies, as well as art and art history, often in dialogue with the artist. Whether it’s analyzing the various processes used to create Sarah’s work and probing perceptual ideas for a science class, or exploring our relationship to the built environment and how we conceptualize and Navigating through space in a government or art history class, students will have many opportunities to access the works through different lenses. They will also have the opportunity to interact directly with the artist. In addition, we are planning events in conjunction with some of the performing arts that respond and will perform in the exhibition itself.
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