Gallery Transplant, Floor Specifications Gallery #3, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Transplanted to Jersey City, New Jersey. Surface: Snow, Dirt, Gravel. Duration: 4 Weeks
1969, arranged 1989
Dennis Oppenheim American, 1938–2011
United States
In his Transplants series (1968–early 1970s), Dennis Oppenheim marked out the dimensions of an indoor space on remote or desultory plots of open land. Invited to show in the groundbreaking group exhibition Op losse schroeven at the Stedelijk Museum in 1969, Oppenheim replicated the footprint of his assigned exhibition gallery in a field near Jersey City. His outdoor site was implicitly set against the confines of an official art space, relativizing its importance. Oppenheim also opened sculpture (and exhibitions) to the effects of chance and other elements beyond the artist’s control. Site documentation, presented as data, defines these artworks over the long term; Oppenheim showed a version of the documentation at the Stedelijk but felt free to rearrange and resize its elements, leading to two further versions, including this one.
Gelatin silver print, photographic text, hand stamped topographic map, and hand-marked photographic floor plan