Sarah Oppenheimer’s D-17, a stark installation concerned with the audience’s view of surroundings through predetermined “holes” or “portals,” opened at the Rice Gallery on September 16.

Houstonians flocked to the gallery in the evening to attend a reception and artist talk relating to the challenges and innovations of the piece.

“This is huge, not just financially,” said Aaren Pastor, a Rice sophomore who works as a receptionist at the Gallery. “It’s really changing the space.”

And so it is, both literally and in terms of human perception. Apart from the removal of a front window to allow the end of the jet plane wing-length piece to pass through, the white structure bisects the gallery itself, hanging in space. The mostly smooth white surface draws the viewer’s attention to the fissure in its length, through which the viewer can see a small portion of the world outside. The view is mutated only by slight discoloration due to the glass wall.

During the daytime, the inside of the gallery is practically invisible to the outside viewer. Smooth glass windows make up the façade, and these same windows reflect the live oak trees that populate the campus.

The viewer’s only clue of the vast white structure inside is a small diamond shape of the aluminum honeycomb used as the primary material protruding from an upper window.

“A lot of my work has dealt with apertures… in inside walls,” said Oppenheimer matter-of-factly. “That challenge [of working with a glass wall directly viewing an outside space] opened up a whole new set of creative possibilities.”

Oppenheimer was not alone in her efforts to make the most out of this as-of-yet artistically uncharted space. In June she conducted a three-day workshop with eight architecture students from Rice. They worked together to examine the effects of light on the space and the reflectivity of the front glass wall.

“This has really been an extraordinary experience here,” said Oppenheimer of her time at Rice. “This particular project was an extraordinary collaboration…I’ve never entered an institution and had such positive feedback.”

D-17 has been a year and a half in the making and Oppenheimer herself was in residence at Rice for six weeks prior to the Gallery’s opening. Recently, she became a winner of the Rome Prize, a prestigious award that involves a year of residency in Rome. Oppenheimer, a native to Austin, received a BA in Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA from Yale University. She is currently a Critic in the Yale School of Art.

“I don’t think this could have taken place in any other place than Rice,” said Kim Davenport, director of the Rice Gallery.

The Gallery, which normally houses four or five different installations over the course of the year, is hosting D-17 through December 5. Viewers can visit Tuesday – Saturday from 11:00 – 5:00 pm, Thursday from 11:00 to 7:00 pm and Sunday from noon – 5 pm. Rice Gallery is always free and open to the public.

“It’s not your museum experience,” said Pastor. “It really symbolizes the Rice Vision of uniqueness.”