Jeff Koons: A Retrospective
June 27–Oct 19, 2014
Equilibrium
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Koons staged his first solo gallery exhibition, Equilibrium, in 1985. The show presented a multilayered allegory of, in Koons’s words, unattainable “states of being” or salvation. Cast-bronze floatation devices, for example, maintained a permanent inflatedness, yet they would kill rather than save their users. On the walls hung framed, unaltered Nike posters, procured by Koons from the company’s headquarters, that conjoined the perfection of appropriated prints with that of the famous athletes they featured. The exhibition’s best-known works remain the tanks in which basketballs miraculously hover. These sculptures expand philosophically on The New; while that series addressed the perfect moment of creation, Koons considers Equilibrium a moment of pure potential: “Equilibrium is before birth, it’s in the womb, it’s about what is prior to life and after death. It’s this ultimate state of the eternal that is reflected in this moment.”
Aqualung, 1985
Jeff Koons, Aqualung, 1985. Bronze; 27 × 17 1/2 × 17 1/2 in. (68.6 × 44.5 × 44.5 cm). Private Collection, New York. © Jeff Koons
Koons cast this aqualung—an underwater breathing apparatus— in bronze using a complex process that required thirty separate molds to replicate the curves and textures of the original object. He hoped to demonstrate that he was capable of producing objects at the highest level of craftsmanship. Of course the casting that transformed the aqualung into a sculpture made it an image of certain death. With this contrast, Koons sought to remind viewers that, despite one’s best attempts to achieve a state of equilibrium in life, mortality is inevitable.