In 1964 Claes Oldenburg and Patty Mucha made Soft Light Switches — “Ghost” Version II: an ordinary wall switch, enlarged and sewn in canvas. Made soft, the switch lost its function, and that loss is part of what makes it a sculpture rather than an oversized novelty switch.

Ghost of Ghost is a full-size reconstruction with a hidden mechanism built back in. Over about an hour it fills with air, sags, partly collapses and flips its toggles. No light ever comes on. The moving toggles make it more like a real switch than Oldenburg’s ever was; the slow filling and emptying make it look almost bodily, breathing or asleep. It becomes more of a switch and less of one at the same time.