About Cleveland’s 35-Ton Rubber Stamp
A massive office stamp lies on its side in Cleveland’s Willard Park with the word FREE molded into its rubber face. The sculpture is nearly fifty feet long and weighs about thirty-five tons, turning one of the most mundane objects on a desk into something closer to industrial machinery.
Artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen designed the sculpture after it was commissioned in the early 1980s. Changes surrounding the original corporate commission delayed its installation, and the work eventually entered public ownership rather than taking the place first intended for it.
The sculpture was installed in Willard Park beside Cleveland City Hall in 1991. Its sideways position makes it look as if a giant user has just pressed the stamp and tossed it onto the lawn. From ground level, the scale is large enough that visitors can walk around the handle rather than simply stand beside it.
The FREE Stamp is outdoors and can be viewed from public park space. No admission or special access is needed to appreciate the central joke: Cleveland has an office supply large enough to crush the desk it belongs on.