Flying Pins

Flying Pins stands in Eindhoven as a public sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. A bowling ball and ten yellow pins appear frozen in mid-flight. The ball measures 6.7 metres across, while the highest pin reaches 8.5 metres. Its dramatic scale brings the energy of a bowling strike into a busy urban setting.

The artists conceived the scene after noticing a bowling alley on the street where it now stands. Yellow pins echo the daffodils flowering along the street each spring. A steel structure keeps the forms stable, while invisible gravity connections preserve the illusion of motion. Some pins rise and others fall, capturing the instant after the ball hits. Commissioned by Eindhoven with involvement from the Van Abbemuseum, the sculpture belongs to fifteen large-scale projects by the artists. Its brightest detail is also its most local: ten yellow pins suspended above the city like spring flowers caught in a sudden gust.