Arts in philadelphia - Research Paper Example

Description of the sculpture The Clothespin is a giant steel sculpture standing at the Centre Square in 1500 Market Street, in front of the City Hall in Philadelphia. It stands at a vertical height of forty-five feet, and as research has it, weighs about ten tons. The clothespin represents a normal household clothespin used to hold clothes on lines when drying or for storage only that is larger than life and made of steel, and not plastic. The steel seems to be weathering, probably due to the exposure, as it is an environmental art.

However, there is a little variation from the actual clothespin in that the handles or pressure points where on pushes together in this giant piece curves outwards more than normal, maybe to provide more balance for the installation. At the joinery part where the two identical pieces normally have a piece of wire going around each peg to form a pivot, the sculptor imitates that and uses a similar twist of steel to create it. Surprisingly, standing from one side of the sculpture, the twisted joining steel forms a number “7”, and if one views it from the opposite side, the steel joinery loops to form a number “6”. . Oldenburg, born to a Swedish diplomat in 1929 in Stockholm, later went to live in the United States, particularly in New York, and later moving to Chicago.

His post-university saw him meet some artists like Jim Dine, Allan Kaprow, and Red Grooms amongst others with similarities of basing their art on alternative to the famous abstract expressionist wave of painting. Their movement came up with an art whereby they included environments to their performances in a bid to eliminate the differences between the visual arts and theater. These kinds of performances are common as the “Happenings”. Oldenburg is famous for transforming normal objects and changes them in some ways, such as the way he changed the household clothespin to a giant sculpture, therefore making people to view them in interesting and unexpected forms.

The socio-political concept of the Clothespin is more understandable by considering the fact that Jack Wolgin commissioned it in 1974 for the marking of the Philadelphian bicentennial through a program by the Redevelopment Authority called Fine Arts Program. The Centennial is an American celebration of culture and industrial progress of one-hundred years, which is a major world fair with much global attraction (Stephanie). As earlier stated, the fastening steel pieces form two numerals (7 and 6 in that order), which is the representation of the centennial exhibition year that is 1876.

Oldenburg used this unique artistic representation to include the year in the sculpture without making it too obvious- a preference of most artists. In addition to this function, there are more assumptions leaning more on the social aspect concerning the sculpture. For instance, a distant side-view of the Clothespin gives an illusion of a very tall figure with legs