Scale

Driving down the Embarcadero in San Francisco many encounter a bow and arrow of greater scale than the objects are normally found. Scale is actually the size of something. The utilization of unusual scale is meant to create some effect on viewers. Rather than creating a statue with cupids and lovers, the bow and arrow are employed and the ideas of cupid love are emphasized by the size of the statue.

In the case of the bow and arrow, the leap in scale is to place stress on the context of the arrow and its relation to San Francisco. This statue, known as “Cupid’s Span”, was commissioned in celebration of the beauty of San Francisco. By utilizing the icon of cupids’ bow on such a large scale, the piece was made to stress the beauty of San Francisco because cupid pointed his arrow at the most beautiful of lover’s. The bow points into San Francisco creating the image of San Francisco as comparable to the beautiful love of someone’s life and cupid would shoot an arrow to unite the two. This statue says that San Francisco is worth the love and hearts of visitors, both in beauty and being the ideal “love”, or in this instance, city.

This sculpture was also created to honor Claes Oldenburg by highlighting his own use of scale to draw attention to everyday objects. Oldenburg uses the scale of these ordinary objects to stress an appreciation of their beauty. Some examples of his works are a clothespin and balancing tools. The old, wooden clothespin design is created on a huge scale, rather than it’s normal size fitting it in the palm of the hand. Clothespins have a highly important role in drying the clothes we wear everyday, but rather than noticing or even fixing a broken one they are normally forgotten and discarded (if broken). Oldenburg is stressing its importance and creation while taking in the beauty of the simple design and comparing it to the more intricate design of the skyscraper behind it. Likewise, the balancing tools seem to suggest not only the tools beauty, but also their use in creating and the balance between the success or failure of the creation. The natural area of the tools may also suggest the take over of the natural world by urban sprawl or even that the natural world is one of the first to build and create.

Although the definition of scale is simply size, the scale of something may offer many other ideas for viewers. When asked about the bow and arrow many people assume that it has something to do with Frank Sinatra’s song “I left my heart in San Francisco”. Although the name allows a little more of the meaning, their guess was close to the meaning. Scale puts more emphasis on what you are looking at and can serve to further the ideas associated with it while also allowing viewers to see it in a new light.

Image above of Claes Oldenberg's "Clothespin" borrowed from: http://www.amandinealessandra.com/research/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2009/04/oldenburg_clothespin.jpg

Second Image of “Cupid’s Arrow” above borrowed from: http://www.freefoto.com/images/1215/02/1215_02_76---Cupid-s-Span--San-Francisco--California_web.jpg