This"still-life drama" included objects that "might offend a museum": an applecore, an abandoned car muffler, and a cross section of a toothbrush, thelast a soft, plantlike version of a steel sculpture that was installed infront of the museum. --van Bruggen,1988 Il Corso del Coltello Incollaboration with van Bruggen and architect Frank O. Gehry, Oldenburgpresented a major performance in Venice, Italy, in 1985 called Il Corsodel Coltello (The Course of the Knife). The centerpiece of theperformance was a giant kinetic sculpture, Knife Ship I, which waslaunched from Venice's centuries-old naval yard, the Arsenale.Oldenburg, van Bruggen, and Gehry performed in costume as, respectively,Dr. Coltello, a traveling souvenir salesman; Georgia Sandbag, George Sandreincarnated as an itinerant travel agent; and Frankie P. (for Palladio)Toronto, a barber from California. Enlarged sculptural versions of theseand other costumes from the performance are included in this exhibition.Georgia Sandbag's belongings are wound into the large Houseball, which isinstalled on the floor of the main rotunda. Also see: The Entropic Library and Il Corso del ColetelloSince 1985,Oldenburg and writer Coosje van Bruggen have created a number of largeindoor installations on European themes. The Haunted House (1987),for example, was comprised of sculptures in the form of "objects randomlyaccumulated from the city"; these were scattered in the rooms of a museumin Krefeld, Germany, as if tossed through the windows.
"The Haunted House isbased upon the random objects of a vacant suburban lot, objects set intheir casual positions by some disinterested force: a playing child, apassing vagrant, a gust of wind."
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