Weird and wonderful, Middlesbrough's Bottle of Notes is Claes Oldernburg and Coosje van Bruggen's only public artwork in the UK, unveiled in 1993. The sculptors married in the 1970s, and worked collaboratively for 30 years developing over 40 public pieces in locations across the world.
Situated in the heart of the town, Bottle of Notes signalled a new approach to public art commissioning and regeneration on Teesside. The original plan was to produce the piece in the area but Teesside steel wasn't suitable for this form. The final piece was made in South Tyneside and fabricated by former shipbuilders. The sculpture was then transported by lorry into the centre of Middlesbrough.
Still from HENI Talks' film on Claes Oldenburg's 'Bottle of Notes'
When we stand under this sculpture today, we get a sense of its industrial scale and material connection to an area that was once the world's largest steel manufacturer.
Like all of Oldenburg and van Bruggen's pieces, this familiar object of the bottle is connected to the social history of its site. Captain James Cook, the eighteenth-century explorer and naval officer, was born in the area in 1728. He's also known for the violent encounters that he and his crew had with indigenous peoples. Van Bruggen turned a note from his diaries into a curving script to form the outside layer of the sculpture.
Still from HENI Talks' film on Claes Oldenburg's 'Bottle of Notes'
The blue script wrapped inside the bottle, however, is from a poem by Van Bruggen called Recalling Amsterdam. It reads: 'I like to remember seagulls in full flight gliding over the ring of canals.'
Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) and Coosje van Bruggen (1942–2009) 
Commissioned by Middlesbrough Council and Northern Arts, the work marks a key moment in public art commissioning across the north and is now part of a much wider landscape of art and culture.
Elinor Morgan, curator and writer
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