On Whalley near Woodbridge, a large faux diamond rotates like a planet. Its kitchiness may or may not make it likelier for you to patronize American Diamond Exchange, the jewelry showroom to which it’s attached. But as far as getting us to notice the business and its purpose, the prop’s effectiveness is undeniable.
From shops using spectacle to attract and inform us to farm regions erecting roadside tributes to their proudest crops to museums installing work that challenged art’s rejection of the literal, it’s part of a colorful national tradition of displaying oversized but otherwise faithful facsimiles of ordinary objects.
Locally, however, such renderings seem surprisingly extraordinary—rare—given how fun and effective they can be. Here are eight examples that have, in my case, done what most of them are meant to: get me to notice.
Written and, except where noted, photographed by Dan Mims. Image 1 features a diamond at the American Diamond Exchange. Image 2 features a disposable coffee cup at Dunkin’ Donuts (Park and Chapel Streets). Image 3 features a soft-serve cone at Bill’s Carousel. Image 4 features a giant wrench in a classroom window at Hill Regional Career High School. Image 5 features an Adirondack chair along the beachside Savin Rock Trail. Image 6 features a cup of bubble tea at Taichi Bubble Tea. Images 7 and 8, sourced from Facebook, feature packaged candy and a candy dispenser at the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange.
