Giant Everyday Objects Placed in Parks, Fields and Lakes (8 Photos)

November 13, 2026

By Vidar

Familiar objects in unexpected places

A clothespin pinches a hillside, a window stands without a house, a fork rises from a lake, and a tap pours water from midair. These eight artworks take familiar objects out of their usual surroundings.

More: Sculptures That Blend With Nature

🚰 Floating Tap — El Puerto de Santa María, Spain 🇪🇸

A tap pours water while apparently floating in midair. A pipe hidden inside the stream supports the tap and supplies the water.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsGrifo mágicoEl Puerto de Santa María · photographed 2006Hidden support pipeAqualand (Diario de Cádiz)1A pipe hidden inside the falling water holds the tap up and carries the water to its spout.Wikimedia Commons2According to Diario de Cádiz, the tap is inside Aqualand Bahía de Cádiz, the water park of El Puerto de Santa María.Diario de Cádiz200625 JulPhoto by Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada201516 AugLa Bellesa: at Aqualand202328 JulDiario de Cádiz: at Aqualand202516 JanLa Vanguardia: at Aqualand20263 SepLa Sexta explains the hidden pipeRead the full file →

📷 Photo by Emilio J. Rodríguez Posada / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0; converted to WebP).

🪵 “Skin 2” — By Mehmet Ali Uysal in Belgium 🇧🇪

A wooden clothespin appears to grip a fold of lawn. Mehmet Ali Uysal’s gallery dates Skin 2 to 2010; the familiar object makes the ground look soft enough to pinch.

💡 Park Fact: The clothespin was built for the Festival of the Five Seasons in Chaudfontaine Park, near Liège. Atlas Obscura notes that Uysal, born in Mersin in 1976, teaches art at Middle East Technical University, and that by 2022 the sculpture was no longer in the park.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsSkin 2Mehmet Ali Uysal · 2010 · ChaudfontaineFestival des 5 SaisonsParc de Hauster1The festival describes the work as lifting the lawn’s top layer with a clothespin six metres high.Festival des 5 Saisons2According to a photographer’s Flickr caption, it was replaced in 2020 by the “parasol des 5 saisons”.Flickr201028 SepLa Libre previews the new clothespin201724 AprFlickr photo, still standing (camera date)2020Replaced by a parasol, per Flickr captionRead the full file →

🍒 “Spoonbridge and Cherry” — By Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 🇺🇸

A spoon arches over a pond, carrying a cherry too big for any bowl of fruit. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen made the sculpture in 1985–1988 from aluminum, stainless steel and paint.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsSpoonbridge and CherryClaes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen · 1985–1988 · MinneapolisWalker Art CenterMinneapolis Sculpture Garden1,200 lb aluminum cherry1Meet Minneapolis says it was the first commissioned piece for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, in 1985.Meet Minneapolis2The cherry went to a paint shop in New York in November 2021 and was bolted back on in February 2022.KSTP, 18 Feb 20221988Debuted as the garden opened200917 FebCherry off for an overhaul2012OctStreet View202218 FebCherry bolted back on20256 MaySpoon repaint begins202524 MaySpoon repainted in placeRead the full file →

📷 Photo by Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress, LC-DIG-highsm-12674 (public domain).

🪟 “Window with Ladder – Too Late for Help” — By Leandro Erlich

A ladder reaches a brick wall with no house attached. The wall seems to hang above the ground. The New Orleans Museum of Art lists a 2008 version of Leandro Erlich’s work in its sculpture garden.

💡 Story Fact: Erlich, an Argentine artist born in Buenos Aires in 1973, made the piece for Prospect.1, the 2008 New Orleans art biennial. After Hurricane Katrina, he went to the Lower Ninth Ward and found only the cement foundations of houses that had been built of wood. In an interview quoted by Phillips, he said the ladder leans against “a window from the remaining parts of a house” and that the work is “intended to commemorate loss.”

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsWindow with Ladder – Too Late for HelpLeandro Erlich · 2008 · New OrleansProspect.1 New OrleansNOMA accession 2009.211NOMA’s record lists a steel underground structure along with the metal ladder, fiberglass and aluminium frames.New Orleans Museum of Art2According to F Newsmagazine, the height of the ladder is roughly equal to the depth of the floodwater.F Newsmagazine200826 NovF Newsmagazine review, Lower Ninth Ward200812 DecChristian Science Monitor report200914 JanArt21 tour of the Lower Ninth Ward201920 JunNUVO: in NOMA’s sculpture garden (photo Richard Sexton)Read the full file →

🫖 “Chinatown Market” — By Yip Yew Chong in Singapore 🇸🇬

Tea pours from a huge teapot into cups suspended between real windows. Yip Yew Chong painted the three-story gable at 30 Temple Street as part of his Dreams of Chinatown series, recalling the neighborhood he knew in the 1970s and 1980s.

💡 Artist Fact: Yip spent more than 25 years as a professional accountant and painted murals on weekends for three years. ACCA’s Accounting and Business magazine reports that he became a full-time artist in 2018, when his younger child started university.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsChinatown MarketYip Yew Chong · 2021 · Singapore30 Temple StreetDreams of Chinatown series1Yip says he painted the three-storey mural over “24 very wet days”.Yip Yew Chong2Yip told Mothership that the private commissioners asked for spaces where visitors could interact with the mural.Mothership202124 NovStreet Art Cities: created202114 DecMothership: completed in late November202226 OctPlural Art Magazine review202423 MayMeetarts walk, 30B Temple StreetRead the full file →

More: Yip Yew Chong’s Chinatown murals on SAU

🔗 Visit Yip Yew Chong’s website

🍞 An Oversized Toaster — By Tom Bob

Two black slots turn a green utility housing into a toaster. Its painted cord curls across the pavement, ending in a plug.

💡 Artist Fact: Tom Bob grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and moved to New York City decades ago to pursue an art career. Boston 25 News reports that he works with spray paint and gets permission from building owners and the city before he starts; Untapped New York lists manhole covers, electric meters, pipes and bike racks among the street furniture he turns into cartoons.

More: Tom Bob’s clever street art on SAU

🔗 Follow Tom Bob on Instagram

🎣 “Shiny Objects” — By Naomi Haverland in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA 🇺🇸

Five fishing lures appear to hang against the tower at Kern’s Bakery; even their shadows are painted. Naomi Haverland created the mural for the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk, drawing on East Tennessee’s fishing culture.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsShiny ObjectsNaomi Haverland · 2026 · KnoxvilleKern’s BakerySoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk1Haverland chose the lures for their appearance and their connection to East Tennessee fishing, according to her statement.Legacy Parks2Dogwood Arts places the mural at the entrance to a planned 1.5-mile trail section running from Kern’s toward Island Home Park.Dogwood Arts20268 SepPainting under way202613 SepLocal photographs published20262 OctCompletion confirmedRead the full file →

🔗 Follow Naomi Haverland on Instagram

🍴 “La Fourchette” — By Jean-Pierre Zaugg in Vevey, Switzerland 🇨🇭

An eight-meter stainless-steel fork stands in Lake Geneva, beyond the people relaxing on the shore. Jean-Pierre Zaugg designed it for the Alimentarium’s tenth anniversary in 1995; Georges Favre fabricated it.

💡 History Fact: The fork did not stay at first. Atlas Obscura records that it moved to a garden in Littau, near Lucerne, in 1996, came back to Vevey in 2007 for an exhibition on cutlery, and was then kept for good.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsLa FourchetteJean-Pierre Zaugg · 1995 · VeveyAlimentarium commissionStainless steel, 8 m high1In June 1996 a Vaud court rejected the appeals to keep the fork and set 31 August 1996 as the removal deadline.Vaud administrative court2According to Georges Favre, who built it, the canton of Vaud decreed in autumn 2008 that the fork could stay.Georges Favre1995Installed for the museum’s 10th birthday199624 JunCourt: remove it by 31 August2007Back for “Couverts découverts”20082 JanPhoto by Muriel2008AutumnCanton lets it stay (Favre)202018 JulPhoto by Markus Schweizer20238 AprPhoto by David Haberthür20246 OctPhoto by LlezMore photos2008 Back in the lake, the winter after its 2007 returnPhoto: Muriel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)2023 Spring, with a paddle steamer passingPhoto: David Haberthür / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)2024 Close up, with water marks on the tinesPhoto: Llez / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)Read the full file →