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Engagement by Dennis Oppenheim

Artist: Dennis Oppenheim
Location: Laurel Street traffic median at Harbor Drive, San Diego

“Engagement,” a large-scale sculpture by noted artist Dennis Oppenheim that is on temporary display on Port tidelands. Oppenheim is recognized as one of the foremost conceptual artists and sculptors in the world today. His work has been included in both the Venice Biennale and the Johannesburg Biennale and he recently was recognized for Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale. Oppenheim’s conceptual work initially was introduced through film and video in the 1970s. The New York-based artist has exhibited throughout the world, including works featured in the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“Engagement” is intended to remind the viewer that marriage requires a balance between two people with different interests, tastes and backgrounds. “Engagement” represents the dichotomy of marriage, expressing the romantic and the melancholy.

The romance is found in the light gleaming through two diamonds shaped to reference the form of a house. Melancholy is expressed through the angle at which the two rings lean away from each other, identifying the distance between the people joined in the union. “Engagement” is made of glass and steel and stands 29 feet tall and 21 feet wide. The work will be on display at Laurel and Harbor Drive.

Union Tribune video and slideshow on the project.