These bizarre, giant dog heads wearing chef hats were part of an interactive public art event that recently took place in the Bay area of California. The plastic dachshund sculptures formerly served as the mascots for the Doggie Diner, which closed in 1986 in San Francisco. Just recently, Polish artist Olek was invited to cover the strange figures with her signature crochet designs.
Olek is best known for covering all sorts of objects with yarn, from four-car locomotives to a 12-foot tall statue of Albert Einstein. As she crochets in public spaces, each piece emerges right before your eyes. For this particular piece, she wanted to evoke memories about the former diner and to hear stories about the place from passersby. Knowing that nothing is permanent, not even her own art, Olek says, “There is the unraveling, the ephemeral part of my work that never lets me forget about the limited life of the art object and art concept. What do I intend to reveal? You have to pull the end of the yarn and unravel the story behind the crochet.”
Olek’s website
via [Hi-Fructose]