In both his installations, sculpture and paintings, Eric Orr worked with elemental qualities of natural materials, e.g. stone, metal, water, and fire, gold leaf, lead, blood, human skull, and AM/FM radio parts.
His work was influenced by a religio-philosophical conceptualization of space icons found in ancient religions and cultures, such as Egyptian symbolism and Buddhist Spiritualism.
"[4] This group also includes, among others, artists James Turrell, Dewain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Robert Irwin, and Ron Cooper.
"[2] In 1964, Orr exhibited his first work, Colt 45, a chair set in front of an automatic pistol mounted on a stand at eye level for the seated viewer.
"Colt.45...working against the triviality of the exhibited object, it opposed the momentous face of bodily death and was a declaration of war against the viewers' expectation....
It announced Orr's feeling that the overwhelming plethora of art objects amassed, cataloged, and disseminated in our culture had come to imprison the living artist.
After "terminating" his formal education in 1965, Orr moved to Venice, CA and worked as Mark di Suvero's assistant.
He made dry ice sculptures with Judy Chicago and Lloyd Hamrol (artist), and also created a seminal work called Wall Shadow, and Zero Mass in 1969.
Sunrise "began to knit together the scientific and Egyptian strands, introducing silence, alongside space and light, as a third material.
[10] This book included work of Orr's lifelong friend and collaborator James Lee Byars, and writing from Thomas McEvilley.