Desk Lamp Sculpture - Claes Oldenburg

I love this installation by Claes Oldenburg! Once again walking between my contract job and my hotel home for the week in Birmingham I found another cool bit of public art. Claes Oldenburg is most famous for installations of oversized, everyday objects in public spaces. A quick on-line search revealed a giant shuttlecock, a pair of binoculars and an upside down ice cream on the top of a building. There's clearly some humour in his work!

The desk lamp, outside the Mailbox,  is a working light and illuminates the street at night. There was something really friendly and cheerful about it. I wasn't sure if it was the bright red of the paintwork or if there has been an animated desk lamp in film I've seen; but I was almost expecting it to swing it's shade around, "look" at me and say hi! I also enjoyed how the sculpture messed with my perception of scale, the bricks of the Mailbox looked so small in comparison. Which, of course, with a desk lamp wouldn't be the case ordinarily. It really is the most pleasing desk lamp for many reasons. 

It was also lovely to see people interacting with the installation too, whether it was a smile being raised or people stopping to pose for a photo with the sculpture.

Hello!

What a great place for a bin. Honestly...

The Lovely People - Temper

Working in Birmingham this week, the route from my freelance job to my Ibis Budget hotel (contractor style!) took me via the Mailbox and The Cube. I noticed this sculpture by Birmingham street artist, Temper. Temper was commissioned by The Cube to create some three dimensional art for the space and he created The Lovely People, sculptures of inspiring local folk. 

I hadn't realised there was more than one sculpture until a Google search to find out more about the artwork revealed there was more than one. Alas, I have only an image of the lovely person below.

Each sculpture has a large, red heart instead of a face as Temper wanted to portray each person by the size of their heart, rather than their physical appearance. Such a nice sentiment. The statues include Gerda, a Holocaust survivor, and Dave Burns, a fire fighter awarded the George Medal for Bravery.

Proper lovely