Exhibition
Launch Slideshow
Theme for a Major Hit, Dennis Oppenheim. Courtesy of the Clocktower Gallery, 2011
Theme for a Major Hit, Dennis Oppenheim. Courtesy of the Clocktower Gallery, 2011
Theme for a Major Hit, 1974
On view February 17, 2011 - October 19, 2011
By Dennis Oppenheim

“It ain’t what you make, it’s what makes you do it.”

Motor driven marionette 24” high, 2 hour recording, circular stage, spotlight.

Jim Ballard, vocals; Roger Welch, drums; Bill Beckley, guitar/vocals; Christa Maiwald, vocals; John Shole, lead guitar; Diego Cortez, electric organ; Connie Beckley, vocals; Dennis Oppenheim, lyrics. Recorded at Angel Sound, N.Y.C.

A motor-driven marionette from Dennis Oppenheim’s 1974 Theme for a Major Hit, waltzes to the artist’s original sound piece, "It ain't what you make, it's what makes you do it," in the Clocktower Gallery entrance. With a facsimile of Oppenheim's face and a preternatural ability to keep the beat, this seductive yet confounding piece exemplifies a key phase in the artist's body of work.

The Clocktower Gallery thanks Amy van Winkle Plumb, Oppenheim’s longtime curator, for allowing this piece to be exhibited.