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Dennis Oppenheim (1938–2011)

Garden of Evidence

Dennis Oppenheim’s Garden of Evidence comprises sculpture, ceramic tiles, and landscape elements distributed throughout the entry plaza of Scottsdale’s District 1 police station and crime laboratory. Six architectural, scale prickly pear cactus forms are placed within landscape shadow forms on the ground plane. The ceramic tiles and other artistic and landscape elements are inspired by the evidence analyzed inside the lab. These tools of investigation combine with the interlocking cactus and bench forms create pieces of a thematic puzzle.

Oppenheim was born in 1938 in Electric City, Washington. He received a bachelor of fine arts from the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and a master of fine arts from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. After graduation, Oppenheim lived and worked in New York City. He first achieved recognition for his conceptual work in the 1960s, traversing through earth art, body art, video, and performance. Using his body as a site to challenge the self, he also explored, through numerous gallery and museum installations, the boundaries of personal risk, transformation, and communication. In the 1980s, he used machine factory installations to create metaphors for the artistic process. Since then, the artist has concentrated on permanent public sculpture. Through this work he fused a longtime interest in architecture with public sculpture.

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Location7601 East McKellips Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85257, USA

ArtistDennis Oppenheim (1938–2011)

DatesCompleted 2009

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