Dropped Cone

Artist couple Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg placed an oversized upside down ice cream cone on the roof of the newly constructed shopping gallery on Neumarkt. The work was intended to portray a “cornucopia of consumerism,” while simultaneously being a “sign of transience.” As well known representatives of pop art, the artists have installed large scare projects in public spaces since the 1970s. These works feature commonplace objects that have been enlarged, making them seem foreign, and reinterpreting them in terms of form and content.
Dropped Cone also makes reference to its location in several ways: Inspired by the numerous ice-cream-shaped figures that are used for advertising in front of the Cologne ice cream shops, they took on the subject and flipped it over. The towering cone creates a formal parallel to the church towers that dominate the skyline (especially from the cathedral). Thus, the Neumarkt-Galerie has been reinterpreted as a church of consumption, while the melting ice cream (that would eventually smear across the department store windows) represents the transience of consumerism. However, the artists are not didactic about their content, and instead incorporate it with humor in a colorful and cheerful image.
Reference: http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/largescaleprojects/droppedcone.htm