Sarah Oppenheimer: S-3374373

Sarah Oppenheimer's work pivots between sculpture and architecture, disrupting our experience of spatial continuity and shaping our experience of the built environment.

Comprised of two large-scale, glass-and-metal structures anchored by a unique pivot mechanism — what the artist refers to as “switches” — S-3374373 roatates at a 45-degree angle when activated by visitors, with just the slightest intervention. Contact animates and alters their position, shifting the division of interior space and the reflected view in the glass surface. When oriented in a vertical or horizontal position, switches reflect sightlines through the renovated building’s north-facing 19th–century factory windows and to the Hoosic River beyond. Once activated, switches slip deftly between surrounding columns, rotating through a dampened and defined arc: What appeared at one moment to be a vertical glass column is transformed into a horizontal reflecting screen.

The motion of S-3374373 exaggerates the transitory relationship between the architecture and those who inhabit it. This accelerated change heightens an awareness of a periodic relay between building and body, appliance and envelope, making explicit the temporal register of architectural adaptation and change.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.