Make it Pop

Back in July, we lost a sculptor who redefined how we see everyday objects: Claes Oldenburg.

You may have an emotional connection with his work like I do if you've circled around his 1962 soft sculpture of a gigantic hamburger at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It's hard to resist this impossible marriage of high art and fast food, this delicious hymn to pleasure.

If you've never experienced "Floor Burger," you'll get a sense of its appeal in this video from the Museum of Modern Art, where it was included in a show of the artist's early work:

I often have Oldenburg on the brain when I'm shopping for vintage decor, because his artistic strategy of taking ordinary things and transforming their scale is also at play in many of the design objects I love.

Here's a pendant lamp I snagged at inabstracto that takes the form of an oversized lightbulb:

I still haven't gotten around to mounting it from the ceiling, as it looks so comfy lounging in various chairs like an especially relaxed houseguest.

Giant lightbulb lamps are easy to find at vintage dealers, in fact at the time of this writing you'll find three different models at Atomic Design. It's where I picked up a number of other Pop objects, including a miniature shopping cart, chunky metal dice and a pair of scaled-up clothespins that have the presence of twin soldiers:

The clothespins were reminding me of a towering version Oldenburg made in 1976 for a public square in Philadelphia, giving heroic stature to a mundane household device. I just had to make these more attainable versions my own.

I've been known to go to absurd lengths to get my dose of Pop mischief. A few years back, CB2 had a chew toy for dogs in its Christmas selection that took the form of a crocheted hot dog. I bought two, super-useful for creating Oldenburg moments on a whim:

When you think about it, Oldenburg's pioneering soft sculptures are newly relevant in our era of stretchy work-from-home outfits, with their elasticized waistbands and friction-free fabrics.

His playfulness is also apropos at a time of increased confinement to our homes and escalating exposure to bad news. The beauty of his Pop sensibility is that it teaches us to re-evaluate what's around us and see its potential splendour for the first time.

It doesn't need to involve adding anything new. Simply scan your space for items that deserve to be rescued from the realm of tired functionality.

There's at least one of those objects in your home right now. In fact, there's probably more.

Make it your mission to find them!