Giant Safety Pin

San Francisco, California

Is it safe? Yes, very.

We're devotees of the roadside sculptures of Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022) and Coosje van Bruggen, which are "Art" statements, but they're also honking-big versions of everyday objects, ripe for tourist photo ops. We've been to the big rubber stamp, the big shuttlecocks, the big flashlight, the bow and arrow (Cupid's Span, also in San Francisco).

So, the Safety Pin. It's big, 21-ft tall, and angles over a walkway in the De Young Museum sculpture garden, which visitors can enter without paying admission (though the museum contains many fine works). But a large hedge blocks it from the street.

Compared to the artists' larger works, this one is relatively easy to reposition. We think the sculpture would convey more of Oldenburg's humor if it were out among the people. The tiny, easily impaled people. Like that mob across the plaza queuing at the CA Academy of Sciences. They'd stand under the point of a giant pin in a second if it meant they could get into today's sold-out planetarium show.