Grant asked me to take this picture to document what we assumed was an unknown Claus Oldenburg in Baker City, Oregon. It turns out that it is not one of Oldenburg's giant public sculptures of everyday objects, but an actual 20' tall swingset. Whoever designed this thing either shared Claus's interest in gigantism, or seriously has never stood next to a child. Do you see that the seat is at about the height of Grant's head? I tried it out and could barely handle the G-force generated by mellow swinging, so we hopped back in the car and headed for Olympia before any enormous Eastern Oregon children saw us in their park.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Provenance can be hard to establish
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5 comments:
scaaaary... glad you guys made it out alive!
totally cracked me up!
Not only is my father from Baker City, and I return there once a year to fish the burnt river, but I have been on those very swings.
They used to have an inappropriately tall slide in that park that we'd take wax paper up and ride down on at speeds hitherto unknown on playground equipment.
While in New York I visited the MOMA with my grandmother. There was a whole display of over sized pieces, and other pieces by artists mentioned on this blog. I thought Grant would especially appreciate the Liechtenstein art (isn't that his favorite?) Anyways, about half way through the first wing of the MOMA and upon seeing a chair glued to the wall my grandma declared, "this isn't art, there is nothing interesting or inspiring about this junk." She waited for me in the lobby/gift shop. So much for being open minded...
I bet your grandma would have liked it if it was a giant chair.
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