Hook, 2003
How can one measure an artist’s success, or in this particular case, acclaimed American artist Jeff Koons’s? In 1991, Koons shocked the art world with his Made in Heaven series, which feature paintings, photographs and sculptures of Koons and his ex-porn star, ex-wife Ilona Staller in various explicit sexual positions. A year later, Koons was again in the limelight at an exhibition in Bad Arolsen, Germany, with his Puppy, a gigantic, 12-metres-tall West Highland White Terrier dog made of stainless steel and live flowers with an internal irrigation system. From what it seems, Koons’s works are larger-than-life in their own way and they cry out for our attention.
Seal Walrus Trashcans, 2003-2009
SUPERSWEET has kept our eyes on Koons but still holds some ambivalent views towards him. On the one hand, Koons revives the interests in pop art influencing prominent contemporary artists in the like of Damien Hirst. Koons’s works are exhibited internationally and to an extent raved at by the public. What’s more, he has, so far, made millions of US dollars selling his artwork. That alone should have secured Koons’s success as an artist. On the other hand, Koons is one of those artists who hired an image consultant to pimp up his public persona, and his works panned by art critics as lacking substance. Is his success then artificially constructed and achieved through the PR who managed to fool some millionaire collectors?
We were at the Serpentine Gallery to see Koon’s latest solo exhibition Popeye Series and bring back the answer. On entrance, we were awe-struck, not in a good way, by his Caterpillar Ladder, an inflatable caterpillar trapped in an aluminum ladder. This is definitely not the art that shouts “genius” but accumulates a sort of “what-is-that” response. Yes, it is in every sense so deceptively simple that one would proclaim, “I can do that myself.” Koons seems to have lost his artistic boldness that defines his earlier works. And, then, there were Dogpool (Logs), an inflatable dogpool suspended from the ceiling by aluminum chains and filled with logs and Acrobat, a balloon lobster balancing itself upside down on a chair and a bin. These invoke in us a certain degree of doubt, impossibility and the unnatural presence of the artwork. There is something interesting in this, we feel.
Olive Oyl, 2003
Indeed, Koons’s Popeye Series are not as simplistic as they appear to the eyes. These inflatable toys cast in aluminum—what has become his original artistic stamp—do wonder to children and adults alike. In this case, considering that the Gallery was swarmed with kids and their parents as well as foreign students on a school trip, we would say Koons’s Neo-Pop alchemy hits the mark. Any subtext? Mismatching the cartoonish balloon animals) with the real, banal everyday objects, such as chairs and stainless steel kitchenware, Koons instills in his works the sense of discomfort, the childlike delight and joy that is trapped within the banal world of adults but is still trying to manifest its existence. His paintings, however, do not beget the same visual effects. They include cruxes of the real versus the cartoonish images—Popeye, Olive, naked female bodies, lobster, moustache, jewelry, etc.—some of which are taken from the inflatable animal toys created by Koons, others from the American, consumerist culture. Though thematically consistent, they are not very special.
It is fair to say that Koons’s works border on tackiness. But, it is also fair to say that the culture, which Koons attempts to portray, is no less tacky. If that is the case, Koons has ticked all the boxes, whilst his works, which reflect money, consumerism, sexuality, childhood, and banality, seemingly serve their purposes. Do we want something a bit cleverer? We’d say, there is cleverness in Koons’s works, but it remains mostly on his immaculate experimentation and manipulation of different materials—e.g. turning aluminum into balloon. There is also the sense of playfulness, but it comes without any heavy message. Koons never seems to exploit the consumerist culture enough or up to the point that he becomes liberated by it. More likely, his works become the agent, the replica of the mass culture, rather than its critic. This is not bad, though we are not overtly enthused.
Catch Jeff Koons: Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery from now till 13th September 2009.
Words: Poonperm Paitayawat
Images: (c) 2009 Jeff Koons