Claus Oldenburg and the Giant Pretzel Project

While most Pop artists from the 1960's were making two dimensional work, Claus Oldenburg was making the most of the 3D world, creating every day objects in their every day glory. He made plaster cheeseburgers and dessert displays the same year that Andy Warhol introduced us to Campbell's soup as art form, and he called his gallery, a store. Oldenburg made a giant fabric floor cake that makes you want flop on, for your sugar-induced nap. He made huge French fries that hung form the ceiling, spilling out of it's container, and a droopy vinyl toilet (which was the first Oldenburg I'd encountered as a teenager on a trip to the MOMA). His 45 foot clothes pin outside Philly's city hall, and his cherry on a spoon, in Minneapolis, speak to time, place, and the monumental importance of every day objects.

Because my students were already familiar with Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Segal, we could jump right in to figure out how Oldenburg fit into Pop culture.

Then students picked an everyday item that had enough meaning to want to "blow up" into a large paper mache sculpture.  And by meaning, keep in mind, that much of Pop art was superficial, and was just about things that we like. That's enough some times. We started with a cardboard shape, and then wadded paper, bubble wrap and paint before wrapping in strips of newspaper dampened by fabric starch.

Students mostly made food: pizza, pretzel, hotdog, pancake, etc. But a couple made objects like an Orbit brailler, or a pair of giant sunglasses.

I was surprised at how often someone would walk into my room, see my students working on their projects and ask, "What are these for?" This seriously happened, like 4 or 5 times in one week. At first, I was a little confused and said, "This is an Art class. We make art." But after the 2nd time, I started saying, "For prom." And then people would be like, "Oh. Cool."  So now I think I will incorporate the big hot dog and pizza into our New York themed prom as photo props, just to keep myself honest.