Oct. 6, 2011-Jan. 5, 2012
“My Window into Houston is a sidewalk aquarium filled to the brim with fantastically mutated fluorescent marine life imagined to have evolved in the environmentally discrete realm of the downtown bayou. These aquatic critters made of fluorescent colored paper and lit by blacklights have come to resemble elements of their urban surroundings, not for the purpose of disguising themselves, but in celebration of their metropolitan environment. They’re a sophisticated set with an iridescent glow of confidence—and they love the nightlife.
By day these creatures seem to be confined to their steel tanks. The windows are covered with a perforated film that is printed to look like a riveted steel tank with portholes through which passersby may glimpse the occupants inside. In the evening, however, as the aquarium’s inhabitants become brighter than the ambient light outdoors, the steel façade begins to disappear and passersby may think that they are looking into the windows of a fanciful underwater nightclub.”
Dennis Harper grew up in Los Angeles and splits his time between Houston and Austin. He holds an MFA from the University of Houston (2009) and a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin (2004).