Clothespin

A clothespin (US English) or clothes-peg (UK English) is a fastener used to hang up clothes for drying, usually on a clothes line. Clothespins often come in many different designs.

Design

Not to be confused with the one-piece wooden clothes-peg for hanging up coats that was invented by the Shaker community in the 1700s. During the 1700s laundry was hung on bushes, limbs or lines to dry but no clothespins can be found in any painting or prints of the era. The clothespin for hanging up wet laundry only appears in the early 19th century patented by Jérémie Victor Opdebec. This design does not use springs, but is fashioned in one piece, with the two prongs part of the peg chassis with only a small distance between them—this form of peg creates the gripping action due to the two prongs being wedged apart and thus squeezing together in that the prongs want to return to their initial, resting state. This form of peg is often fashioned from plastic, or originally, wood. In England, clothes-peg making used to be a craft associated with gypsies, who made clothes-pegs from small, split lengths of willow or ash wood.

Clothespin (Oldenburg)

Clothespin is a weathering steel sculpture, by Claes Oldenburg. It is located at Centre Square, 1500 Market Street, Philadelphia. Oldenburg is noted for his attempts to democratize art, and the location of Clothespin, above SEPTA's City Hall subway station, allows thousands of viewers to view it on a daily basis. It was dedicated June 25, 1976. Made of Corten steel, Clothespin is praised by art critics for its velvety texture and weathered, warm reddish-brown color. The silvery steel "spring" part the two textured work resembles the numerals "76", apt for the United States Bicentennial year. Tying in Philadelphia's colonial heritage with its difficult present, Clothespin addresses the city's civic issues and attempts to close the gap between income levels within the city through its universally recognized form. The design has been likened to the "embracing couple" in Constantin Brâncuși's sculpture The Kiss in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

It was commissioned in May 1974, by developer Jack Wolgin, as part of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority's one percent for art program.