Oldenburg’s controversial sculpture allows as a symbol of political and artistic activism. Exploring the relationship between object and site, the artist installed the missile-shaped form beside the classical columns of Yale’s World War I memorial. Situated in this way, Lipstick (Ascending) challenged both the artistic conventions of monuments and the mechanisms of war. When pumped with air, the lipstick would inflate and rise from its base to attract attention. The work symbolizes both male (with its military tank and phallic form) and female (lipstick), and explores themes of power and desire. Oldenburg, who was concerned with making democratic art, described the work as “anti-heroic, anti-monumental, and anti-abstract.” The sculpture also questions the authority of the original object. Though it was first made with a wooden base and a soft inflatable lipstick, the work was later reconstructed with more durable materials to be installed in the courtyard of Morse College, one of Yale’s residential colleges.