Trenton, NJ – It was off to Jersey this weekend to see the giant tooth! I love giant things, but this giant tooth isn’t your average everyday oversized item. It’s part of Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey’s largest sculpture park. Although I skipped the park, I couldn’t miss the tooth. Titled Comprehension by J. Seward Johnson, it can be seen right as you get off (or on, depending on which way you’re coming from) I-295.
When I came off the highway and saw it I thought that it must be popular, seeing as there were 2 people standing right in front of it. It took me a while to notice that they weren’t people. They were part of the sculpture, and they’re great for determining the scale of the thing. They are a man an a woman looking at the large tooth-like structure with bewildered faces. From one side it’s very obviously a tooth, but from the back it’s a bit of a mutated tooth. A woman who stopped to take pictures with her husband and grandson told me she thought it looked like and elephant. She also mentioned that when they look at the thing both her and her husband feel like they’re making the same faces.
I have to admit the former snotty art student in me loved this sculpture. Not only because it’s a big thing (In fact for years if it wasn’t an Oldenburg I didn’t consider it art, I couldn’t have been more wrong! Now I wonder if Oldenburg is to arty to be an odd find), but because part of the point of art is to push boundaries and making people think. If that means pulling over to the side of the road to take a picture with a Giant Tooth than it’s done it’s job. It doesn’t need to be dipped in formaldehyde to art, it just needs to make people stop and take it in. Weather they like it or not.
Seattle, WA – Deep within the bowels of Pike Place Market is the Giant Shoe Museum. It’s a little unassuming museum that costs a max of 75¢, only you must have quarters. There are no tickets or docents, just a storefront converted into what is now the Giant Shoe Museum. It’s very reminiscent of an old side show, complete with a tease that reals you in. For the astounding cost of free you can peep at the story of Robert Wadlow’s shoes (a sideshow wonder in his own right) as well as a genuine pair of clown shoes. And then for the admission price of 25¢ you can see other enormous shoes, including what I’d guess is the biggest pair of chucks ever made (if there’s a bigger pair let me know and I’ll jump at the chance to visit). As I dropped a quarter into each machine to see curtains pulled back to lights come up to reveal the shoes inside I loved every moment of it. The best was the moment when I was hanging back taking photos that I heard a group of teenagers complain that the show wasn’t worth it…seriously? Not worth the quarter you just paid? I’m sure I could come up with a list of things that weren’t worth the $150 they spent on it. But just like a good sideshow blow off I’m always willing to pay a little extra to have not to miss a little bit of weird. Of course I also have a soft spot for coin operated entertainment.
Uniontown, PA – I’m really beginning to dig the muffler men. They’re an easy attraction to spot, which is just fantastic. All you have to do is turn a bend that there they are, larger than life and with a steely grin. This time the muffler man I sought stood guard at a tire store. Seems kinka apropos…too bad they weren’t a muffler shop.
The Paul Bunyan style giant hangs out in front of Import Export Tire and is dressed in a burly red and blue. It doesn’t appear to phase the tire guys that there’s somebody outside snapping pictures, they just continue on with their work. I don’t think they’re rude, just used to it. I imagine they get that everyday.
The best part of the tire shop is the sign above the office door:
The Men Who Know Tires Best
I’m fairly certain that the muffler man knows tires best of all.
