Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022) has produced an enormous innovative body of imagery, ranging from clothing, light switches, food displays, and furniture sets to tea bags. Soft Switches is one of his “soft” vinyl sculpture, which amuses us because it is unexpected. We expect a light switch to be a hard, solid object which we can flick on or off. Here, however, the switches sag like a pair of shoes poking through a pouch. These sculptures are not only startling because of their material, but also because of their size. We expect light switches to be small, almost unnoticeable, and purely functional household fixtures. But these are imposing, and they announce their presence, insisting on being noticed. In so doing, the switches reflect the characteristic Pop Art taste for monumentalizing everyday objects and the style’s introduction of a new body of subject matter.

Oldenburg’s giant Clothespin of 1976 in Philadelphia is also an enlargement of an everyday household object. The clothespin has an anthropomorphic quality, resembling a tall man standing with his legs apart, as if striding forward. Despite the hard texture of this work, Oldenburg manages to arouse a tactile response by association with actual clothespins.^[1]