it's funny how some things do remain

It's time to ask another age-old question.
What could be better than...

A
GIANT
PIECE
OF
CAKE
? !


Probably nothing. But that's what Claes Oldenburg is all about -- creating works of ultimate indulgence. Like other pop art, Oldenberg's work (in conjunction with his calloborations with wife and sculptor Coosje van Bruggen), is based around the idea of decontextualizing easily recognized objects with strong associations.

Unlike some other pop artists, Oldenburg is famous for making giant sculptures of basic, everyday items, not just specific consumer-obsessed brand products (take Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans, for instance). In a way, his pieces are more ridiculous than that of some other pop artists. The pieces are not terribly realistic looking so much as strange and banally simplified.

There is definite humor to Oldenburg's work. Though brand-free, each of the objects he recreates are ones with close human and cultural associations. He takes the most seemingly ordinary objects and foods and makes them huge. Take his 45ft tall clothespin. While clothespins are generally regarded as mundane and harmless, Oldenburg presents it as a huge somewhat daunting beacon. The clothespin is a mighty hero towering over Philadelphia. That's funny, right?

Oldenburg's materials are pretty strange as well. He made a number of so-called "soft sculptures" that are pretty much what their names imply; instead of being made out of hard, solid materials like the clothespin, many of Oldenburg's pieces are made primarily from soft vinyls. This contributes a certain fleshy feel to the pieces, not to mention certain sexual overtones. In that way, he strips objects of their normal implications and inserts others that we (ideally) only apply to other people.


So what does it mean to have a huge (perhaps sexual), grimy hamburger that resembles something of an old crumpled happy meal? I don't know, but I want to eat it.

photo credit:
top left: Claes Oldenburg, Floor Cake, mixed media, 60" x 9" x 48," 1962
top right: Claes Oldenburg, Clothespin, cor-ten and stainless steel, 1962
center: Claus Oldenburg, Floor Burger, canvas, foam, rubber, 52" x 84," 1962