the main character of a performance piece created by claes oldenburg, coosje van bruggen, and frank gehry. like any art object, it has different levels of meaning. it represents tourism. in fact, the army knife is always in the pocket of the traveler. but also it is the symbol le reality of t do of venice, the schizophrenia of venice, which is seen in the contrast between the past and the present, an invasion of modern materials into a very ancient city. the knife is truly a ship. it traveled through the water of the canals of venice. so it becomes the symbol of a city and represents, also, the people visiting the city. it's a traveling object, and so as a traveling object, it becomes a nomad. so a work of art is a nomad, going everywhere in cities as new york, paris, venice, and los angeles. oldenburg's witty play with scale has been copied everywhere, as here in soho, new york's fashionable art center of the eighties. we've reached the point where more people are exposed to art than ever before in history, not only through books, films, museums, but from the everyday artifacts around th