Safety Pin - Claes Oldenberg

We were also introduce to this work entitled Safetuy pin which is from the De Young Museum.
I felt that this piece was quite interesting, the fact that they have taken an everyday, unnoticed item and turned it into an intersting piece of art. Questions arised instantly in my head abourt this piece:

• can the piece bend just like an ordinary pin?
• if possible, is there any pactical uses for the pin?

in relation to games, the theme of growth comes to mind. The game mario is probably the clearest example, where Mario is able to grow by a substancial amount in the Super mario series, when he powers up for a limited amount of time.