Lipstick

Steel, aluminum, polyurethane enamel.

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, the USA.

Unlike the relatively neutral works of Claes Oldenburg in the style of pop art, this item from a set of cosmetics carries a definite anti-war appeal. The sculptor made the lipstick together with a group of activist students at the height of the US military operation in Vietnam; after it was installed in the courtyard of Yale University, a public that saw it reacted differently. The female attribute, combined with tank tracks, was originally inflatable and swayed in the wind, and the tracks were set in motion by a small motor. After some time, the sculpture was dismantled; on its place, the same but static, made of painted steel and aluminum work was installed.