AUSTIN, TX.- Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin, received a national CODAaward for its commission C-010106 by New York-based artist Sarah Oppenheimer. Selected from among 411 international entries, the project received a merit award for public art at an educational institution. The award marks Landmarks’ seventh recognition from CODAworx, a national organization that celebrates outstanding projects which integrate commissioned art into interior, architectural, or public spaces.
Commissioned by Landmarks for UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering, C-010106 consists of two structures positioned at opposite ends of a new pedestrian footbridge on the Texas Engineering campus. Each structure features four panes of glass—two reflective diagonal sheets sandwiched between two vertical sheets. At the intersection of the four panes, the glass passes through an incision in the bridge’s surface, enabling pedestrians on top of the bridge to see the reflections of those underneath, and vice versa. Oppenheimer complicates the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, shifting our frame of spatial reference, displacing our experience of inside and out, and inverting our sense of what is near and far.
“Sarah Oppenheimer is an inventor who questions everything, drawing scientists and engineers into a journey that is driven by curiosity,” said Landmarks Founding Director and Curator Andrée Bober. “We are delighted to celebrate and share this award.”
Oppenheimer’s project was selected by an esteemed panel of 18 international jurors from the design, architecture, and art worlds, including: Kerry Adams-Hapner, Director, San Jose Department of Cultural Affairs; Herme-Armand Bechy, author, Introduction to Contemporary Public Art (France); Sandra Bloodworth, Director, MTA Arts and Design; Necole Irvin, Director, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Houston; Michael Mayer, President, Franz Mayer (Germany); and others. Criteria included the integration of a commissioned artwork into a site-specific project; the strength of the collaborative process among the creative teams, commissioners, and industry resources; and the seamless blending of art and design to create a place as art, rather than a place with art.
“The CODAawards recognize the importance of collaboration, and honor design and art professionals whose collective imaginations create the public and private spaces that inspire us,” said Toni Sikes, CEO of CODAworx.
As a CODAworx winner, C-010106 will be featured in the November 2023 issue of Interior Design Magazine and on the CODAworx website.
SARAH OPPENHEIMER
Sarah Oppenheimer (b. 1972, Austin, Texas) has lived and worked in New York City since earning a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in 1995 and an Master in Fine Arts from Yale University in 1999. Oppenheimer’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2020); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2019); the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (2017); the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida (2016); MUDAM: Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2016); and Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland (2014). The artist is a recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship (2011–12), Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship (2009), and Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2007). Oppenheimer is currently a senior critic at the Yale University School of Art.
