Dennis ophenheim

Oppenheim remarked, "machines are a rather perfect device to use as a metaphor for thinking. [Through these] industrial and mechanical systems. . . I felt I could objectify the mechanics of thought." Mining ore, for example, suggests coming up with an idea. Diamond cutting suggests the refinement of a thought-object. A launching structure suggests the moment of putting a thought into action, and so on. -p.39

Something similar was occuring at this time in his close friend Acconci;s work also. For both Oppenheim and Acconci the era of directly embodying theory through the use of mental process or consciousness as material had passed, and questions concerning the nature of the physical art object and its representational force had reasserted themselves. pp.39