Sarah Oppenheimer doesn’t want you to just touch the art, she wants you to change it. With four “instruments” installed in an open-plan gallery, museumgoers can alter the 6,200-foot space by working four black-beam “instruments” that split and slide walls while illuminating and dimming lights. Building off of recent exhibitions in Switzerland and Pittsburgh, Oppenheimer’s machines allow exhibition “visitors”—she finds the term “viewer” too passive—to shape the space, creating new sightlines and blurring the line between art and artist. —J.D.

Sarah Oppenheimer: Sensitive Machine
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Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College / Clinton / Art
Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College / Clinton / Art
Installation view of “N-01,” a 2020 exhibition that Oppenheimer’s new work builds from. Photo: Serge Hasenböhler.
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