Art That Plays With Scale

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Some works unsettle by making familiar things the wrong size. Shrink a household object and it turns precious or uncanny; enlarge it and an adult feels like a child. René Magritte used the effect in Personal Values (1952), where a comb, a shaving brush and a wine glass dwarf a bed and wardrobe.

Since the 1960s sculptors have made scale their main tool. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen placed giant clothespins, spoons and trowels in public space, among them Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985–88). Robert Therrien built tables and chairs so tall that visitors walk beneath them. Going the other way, Charles LeDray sews suits and coats small enough for a doll, while Ron Mueck's hyperreal figures are far larger or smaller than life, which makes their realism more disquieting. Look at where the work puts the body: underneath, looming above, or leaning in close.