Monday, May 9, 2011
Giant Clothespins?
When I first saw Claes Oldenburg's "Clothespin" I was fairly skeptical about it's place in the humanities book. It didn't seem overly impressive and I thought surely they could find a better topic to talk about that was relative to the subject. But, like it seems I always do, I sort of opened up to it after reading about it and thinking a little deeper on it.
After my initial Pollock-like impression had faded, I started to appreciate this form of art for what it was intended; comedy. Oldenburg wasn't necessarily trying to be overly creative with this but rather make us think twice about something we normally hardly think once about. What I took from this piece was that something, in this case a clothespin, isn't always used for how we think it should, hanging up clothes. And what better way than to get that point across then making it absurdly giant? I know I can't think of a better way. Unless you are Paul Bunyan, you won't be using this size of clothespin anytime soon for laundry. So bravo Mr. Oldenburg, you get my approval on this one. Plus you get the honor of being my last blog so kudos to you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your initial reaction. At first glance, I thought that this was a pointless, meaningless sculpture, and then I realized: I liked it. Art doesn't have to be breathtaking or difficult for it to maintain its name, it just has to serve its purpose. I believe that its purpose is simply to entertain. If I like it and think that it's funny, then that is enough for me!
ReplyDeleteLike you, when I first saw the giant rust covered clothespin, I thought it was pointless. But then I looked into it more. I wouldn't mind having a giant clothespin outside of my office window. in the end, I think it is interesting to look at.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what you have to say about Oldenburg. I actually blogged about him as well, I recommend looking into his other works. He has other absurdly huge sculptures of everyday objects that I find to be humorous and fun.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the above comments, it seems like my initial reaction was about the same as everyone else's, but I also ended up liking the sculpture, or rather the idea. Some of his other works are really random and fun as well. This concept is probably one of my favorites that we studied. I enjoy analyzing things, but sometimes its more fun to just look at a piece of art as purely humorous.
ReplyDelete