Upside-down church provokes great debate

[SoCalDem]

Not a new article, but interesting..I wonder if they kept it:)

other Oppenheim art http://www.dennisoppenheim.org/welcome.html
http://www.dennis-oppenheim.com/works

Upside-down church provokes great debate

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2008/05/24/upside-down-church-provokes-great-debate.aspx

By Douglas Todd 24 May 2008


The upside-down church at Coal Harbour is the most provocative public sculpture I've ever seen. Visually, I love how the church's powerful diagonal lines and flash of red contrast with the endless grey-green verticals of Vancouver's increasingly monotonous skyrises. The sculpture shouts: "I'm having fun and a bit of mischief. You're welcome to respond."

Titled Device to Root Out Evil, the inverted church is, to borrow that over-used journalistic word, controversial. Which is positive, since this supposedly urbane city needs to be talking about something more meaningful than the ever-disappointing Canucks and absurd real estate prices.

Even though the Device can be annoying in the way it pokes fun at serious things, mature Christians can probably handle the debate -- and give as good as they get, since many are more intelligent than their critics credit them.

I hope the Vancouver parks board, which recently voted to take down the devilish Device, realizes it's perfectly fine to be receiving what it calls "mixed" responses to it. The board is accepting submissions about what to do with it up to May 30. I don't know whether to believe the artist, Dennis Oppenheim, when he says he didn't mean the sculpture to be contrarian. It could be true: Oppenheim's other public works (www.dennisoppenheim.org) are not overly contentious, though they're awfully clever.

Washington-state-raised Oppenheim says he added the title only after he realized the inverted church might bug his fellow Americans, which it did. Less thick-skinned than Canadians like to think we are, Americans refused to erect it at Oppenheim's alma mater, Stanford University, and elsewhere.

snip

[supernova]

1. I want to know why the thing stood up

It seemed to defy gravity.

[SoCalDem]

2. Take a look at the others he did.. There's a house rollercoaster

Fun!!