Outdoor Installation: “OY/YO” by Deborah Kass
Now on View
Media inquiries: mediarelations@theweitzman.org
Visit (the sculpture is located outside the Museum at the corner of 5th & Market)
The Weitzman has installed Brooklyn-based artist Deborah Kass’ monumental “OY/YO” sculpture on its grounds, at 5th and Market Streets on Independence Mall. The bright yellow aluminum statue is creative wordplay using just two letters with several meanings. One side says “YO,” referencing the attention-getting phrase used throughout Philly, as well as “I” in Spanish, while the other side reads “OY,” a popular Yiddish phrase used in Jewish and American culture.
At 8-feet tall, 16-feet wide, and 5-feet deep, “OY” will become part of Old City’s cultural fabric and a destination for tourists and locals alike. Kass first created “OY” as a painting in 2011 and in 2015 turned it into a sculpture that sat in New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“I created OY/YO thinking about the American promise of equality and fairness and our responsibilities to make the country a better place for all,” says Kass. “With hate and division now on the rise, it is urgent to see our commonalities, what we share, and what brings us together.”
OY/YO: CONVERSATION WITH DEBORAH KASS AND THOM COLLINS
Deborah Kass | OY/YO, 2015 | Painted Aluminum | © 2022 Deborah Kass / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York | Photograph by Robert Hakalski
Experience the acclaimed Nova Music Festival Exhibition at The Weitzman.
Now through October 13.
Advance reservations strongly recommended. Hours vary daily. Closed October 12.
For one week only, the pop-up, traveling version of The Moment Music Stood Still: The Nova Music Festival Exhibition includes both interior and exterior installations aimed at memorializing the victims of the Hamas-led massacre, including personal belongings of festivalgoers, such as burned cars, bullet-riddled structures, and objects left behind by survivors of the attack at the Nova Music Festival.
