American artist Deborah Kass (b. 1952) makes work that combines an interest in popular culture, art history, and identity. Her work often employs text—a recurring motif is the play between the words ‘OY’ and ‘YO,’ simultaneously referencing a Yiddish expression, a slang greeting, and the phrase ‘I am’ in the Spanish language. Yet in her first monumental sculpture OY/YO (2015) she combined the two words into one work of large yellow aluminum letters. The sculpture shifts the language and meaning depending not just on which side a viewer approaches it from, but also on the visitor’s own identity and what they associate with these two letters. It was originally made for display in the Brooklyn Bridge Park (the artist’s hometown), a reflection of the city’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

Learn more about the work that inspired this pin HERE.