study for The Protection Papers: Borders, Boundaries, and Blockades in the Art of Dennis Oppenheim

Study for re-creation of "Protection," by Dennis Oppenheim, in collaboration with Aaron Levy (Slought Foundation), author of study. Investigations, renderings, and speculative film re-creation by Andrew Lucia.

"Oppenheim temporarily installed "Protection" at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday, 2 February 1971; he positioned twelve trained guard dogs on a 32' x 64' rectangular land area adjacent to the museum to create and insallation that might be informaly encountered by spectators without occluding direct access to the museum entrance. Each dog was attached to twelve 5' street poles with 6' chains for the duration of the installation, a few hours. An interval of 2' separated each chained dog, such that visitors could circulate through the piece with fear, but wihout physical harm."*

*Originally published:
Levy, A. “The Protection Papers; Borders, Boundaries, and Blockades in the Art of Dennis Oppenheim” Via; Occupation, PDSP/School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.  pp 60-65, 2008.

Comparative site plans.

Boston Museum of Fine Art, site plan with area highlighted for Oppenheim installation.

Boston Museum of Fine Art, site plan with area highlighted for Oppenheim installation.

Boston Museum of Fine Art, site plan with area highlighted for Oppenheim installation.

Boston Museum of Fine Art, aerial view with area highlighted for Oppenheim installation.

Temporal/light studies. Recreation based upon instruction for duration of original work. Click for larger image.

Site Plan and instruction by Dennis Oppenheim used for 16mm film recreation. Background and upper right image, digital recreations based upon original work.

16mm film recreation based upon written instruction by Dennis Oppenheim.

For full text and description of study, please see:
Levy, A. “The Protection Papers; Borders, Boundaries, and Blockades in the Art of Dennis Oppenheim” Via; Occupation, PDSP/School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.  pp 60-65, 2008.