Giant Safety Pin.

Giant Safety Pin

We always appreciate a large piece of public art that resembles an everyday household item. We can savor and then comfortably interpret it anywhere along our erudite-to-infantile spectrum. Okay, mostly infantile.

Swedish-born and American-trained sculptor Claes Oldenburg and Dutch-American sculptor Coosje van Bruggen created "Safety Pin" in 1999.

Safety pins were invented in the mid-19th century, used widely to pin baby's cloth diapers. They enjoyed a flap as a fashion accessory in the 1970s, stuck in the clothes and pimply cheeks of punk rockers, and a subsequent resurgence in faux-punk attire for the masses. It's possible that future babies will again yearn for cotton bottoms and the Ramones, and that should help them recognize "Safety Pin" as pop art rather as a random sharp metal thing sticking in the air.

A twin of the safety pin stands in San Francisco's De Young Museum sculpture garden.

Giant Safety Pin

Address:: Victor Ave., New Orleans, LA
Directions:: New Orleans Museum of Art, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Gardens, between Victor Ave. and Dreyfous Dr.

Nearby Offbeat Places

Storyland, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
Boy and the Boot Statue, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
Voodoo-Enhanced New Orleans Cemetery, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
Statue of Ignatius J. Reilly, New Orleans, LA - 3 mi.

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April 10, 2013