Soft Shuttlecock – nikhil.io

b. 1929, Stockholmd. 2022, New York

Soft Shuttlecock, 1995

Canvas, latex paint, expanded polyurethane foam, polyethylene foam, steel, aluminum, rope, wood, duct tape, fiberglass, and reinforced plastic

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Partial gift, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, New York 95.4488

Claes Oldenburg began making soft sculpture in the early 1960s as part of the oversized props he used in transient theatrical events he staged within installations. In 1976, he began a thirty-year creative partnership with the art historian and curator Coosje van Bruggen, with whom he collaborated on more than forty large-scale projects.

Soft Shuttlecock was created specifically for the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in conjunction with Oldenburg's 1995 retrospective. Referencing badminton shuttlecocks handmade with real feathers rather than mass-produced synthetic versions, Oldenburg and van Bruggen's object takes on a whimsical, pliant form. Its massive size humorously deflates the imposing structure of the building by diminishing its relative scale, while underscoring the museum's institutional role as a site not only of culture and education, but also of play.