Dennis Oppenheim, Color applications for Chandra (hand signed limited edition), 1977

Dennis Oppenheim

Color applications for Chandra (hand signed limited edition), 1977

Color lithograph and photo lithograph on wove paper

Signed and dated 1977 in graphite pencil on the front

Edition of 50

30 × 22 inches

Unframed

Color lithograph and photo lithograph on wove paper
Signed and dated to lower edge ‘Dennis Oppenheim 1977’. This work is from the edition of unknown size published by Giffelkunst, Hamburg, Germany.
The images are taken from the titular performance video and an explanatory text. The work was adapted from the title 8mm film by the artist, which documents how information learned by a 2 ½ year old child is then transferred (abstracted from its source) and used to structure the vocal responses of a bird – becoming a method for the artist to throw his voice.
Print depicts an image of sound tape, a slide system with colored gels, amp speakers, tape loop and a yellow parrot. The explanatory text explains that the artist’s 2 ½ year old daughter was taught seven basic colors by repeated exposure to projected light and his voice. In three hours, she was able to associate the color symbol with the word symbol, thereby learning this information. Individual tape loops of Chandra’s voice repeating the color names were played 24 hours a day to a parrot located in a separate room. The parrot eventually learned to mimic the color names

This print was released in a unnumbered but very limited edition of 50 copies, each signed by the artist. Scarce.

Published by Giffelkunst, Hamburg, Germany

Dennis Oppenheim Biography:
Always an innovator, Dennis Oppenheim was an early practitioner of earthworks, body art, and conceptual art. As time passed, he became increasingly known for his ambitious public installations and sculptures.

Oppenheim’s work encapsulates the issues that populate contemporary art discourse from the 1960s to present. He concerned himself with the real world and real-time systems versus artifice; noncommercial, nonsalable works of art versus art as a product for the market; the uses of photography and text; and notions of site-specificity. In a series of works produced between 1970 and 1974, Oppenheim used his own body as his medium, exploring the boundaries of personal risk, transformation, and communication. In 1981, his work moved in a new direction with the “machine pieces”—complex constructions that functioned as metaphors for the artistic process. By the mid-80s, he based his sculptures on the transformation of everyday objects. From the mid-90s until his passing, Oppenheim focused on the creation of large-scale, permanent structures that fused sculpture and architecture.

Oppenheim has been showcased in solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA (1973, 1984); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (1975); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1983, 2003); Tel Aviv Museum, Israel (1984); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA (1997); Montoro12 Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy (2013); Storm King Center, New York (2016); and the Art Institute of Chicago, IL (2016). Oppenheim’s work is held in public collections throughout the world, including: the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY;