Everything You Must Know About the World’s Largest Shuttlecock

The World’s largest Shuttlecock is found in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. The museum has four 18-feet-tall badminton shuttlecocks. The shuttlecock weighs 2,500 kg. Surprisingly, it is 48 times bigger than a normal shuttlecock.

World’s Largest Shuttlecock Sculpture

• At present, you may see the shuttlecocks as an icon for the museum. The husband-and-wife artist duo, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen established shuttlecocks in 1994 on the lawn of the museum’s Kansas City Sculpture Park.
• Shuttlecocks became quite an issue. Once it was known as a controversial art of work. Many local media along with articles, editorial cartoons, news reports, and letters to the editors believed that it was “not art” and called the giant shuttlecock a “giant waste.”
• Shuttlecocks were made of aluminum and fiberglass-reinforced plastic and coated with polyurethane enamel.
• To create the shuttlecocks, the Campbell-Calvin Fund and Elizabeth C. Bonner Charitable Trust for exhibitions supported, and Midwest Airlines is the official sponsor.
• The idea or inspiration to invent the shuttlecocks came to their mind by seeing a painting in the museum by Frederic Remington. It emphasized Native Americans wearing feathered headdresses combined with a satellite picture of the museum grounds that looked like a green ball court.
• Presently, three of the shuttlecocks were placed on the front or south side of the museum building. And the fourth one is located on the back/north side. This ordering was chosen to incorporate the building into the design as the net.
• The initial criticisms were negative and harsh later, the displays have become part of weddings and family gatherings. Now the shuttlecocks are an eternal part of local folklore.

Nelson Atkins Museum and Shuttlecock

Shuttlecock was installed on June 23-July 1, 1994, and inaugurated on July 6, 1994.

The Nelson Atkins Museum became famous because of its four shuttlecock sculptures that lie on its grounds. For visitors, the museum is free and a great place to explore paintings and also check out artists’ creative process displayed on the 20-plus-acre lawn in front of the building. You should also observe the fabrication.

The New York Times beautifully described the place as “the world a better and livelier place.”