Public art piece strings together Penn pride

To many, some string tied around a tree may not seem like art.

Masters in Fine Arts candidate Robert Dimin is challenging this notion with his public art piece “String Theory.”

The project will involve wrapping trees, fences and other permanent fixtures on campus with over 30,000 feet of red and blue string.

It began yesterday near the Fisher Fine Arts Library, the School of Design, Van Pelt Library and the fence behind the Meyerson Building on 34th Street. The project will eventually extend to the front of the Kelly Writer’s House and is set to remain in place until Homecoming Weekend.

Dimin was awarded a $750 Provost’s Office’s Arts & the City Year grant to complete the project.

Dimin did similar work for the Vienna Biennale last fall using pink mason twine, but changed to red and blue string for Penn because the project would be displayed when a lot of alumni will be on campus.

“I want people to enjoy looking at it — to have a little bit of pride. It’s about being part of a broader community,” he said. “The project speaks about the history of Penn. It is now part of that history.”

To help bolster the community aspect, Dimin reached out to fellow students, asking them to participate in the project in hopes of encouraging University-wide involvement, according to Fine Arts Program coordinator Jane Irish.

College senior Lily Rogath, the project’s undergraduate liaison, said this aspect of the project excites her most.

“It is something that everyone can be involved in,” she said. “What better way for MFA students and undergraduates to interact and do something really fun?”

The temporary, site-specific nature of the work is also key. According to Rogath, it speaks to the nature of the work, which encourages audiences to consider unconventional ideas about art.

“It highlights the fact that art can be so much more than a painting — there is art in making something that might not even last,” she said.

Dimin added that the project’s non-permanence is also linked to the current economic situation, representing the “disruption of the linear path [of] existing institutions and foundations … [and] reflects the non-permanence of humanity.”

The project is also intended to have an element of fun — which is why, Dimin said, he was initially surprised he got the grant.

“It’s also a silly project,” he said, adding that to people outside the art world it might seem like one of those things where people are drawn to say “my kid could do that.”

“Penn is a very serious place,” Dimin said, explaining that he wants “nothing more than people getting MBA.s, J.D.s and Ph.D.s in economics to step away from their lives for a minute and understand that people made [the project] with the intention of community and play.”

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