Clothespin

Steel, aluminum, polyurethane enamel.

Located in Philadelphia, the USA.

What could be simpler and more ordinary than a clothespin with which housewives hang clothes to dry? Though, Claes Oldenburg managed to make a monument out of this banal object, increasing it as if with a magic wand to a 15-meter height and placing it on the square of a big city. Among the locals, there is a legend that the sculpture was created by order of a millionaire who made his first and big capital thanks to the production of these small household items. But most likely, Claes Oldenburg just wanted to find the least suitable object for creating a sculpture, and by chance, it turned out to be an ordinary clothespin. In the case of the “Clothespin” installed in the center of Philadelphia, the author sacrificed his rule of accurately copying real objects. He changed the standard shape of the spring to get the numbers 7 and 6. These numbers indicate the year the monument was opened, and the year of the 200th anniversary of the city.