The vinyl inflatables in Koons’s earliest works represented, for him, the precarious nature of life; at any moment the objects could deflate. Meanwhile, the metal sculptures of Statuary, he suggests, “have a permanence to them, they maintain a nondivisible sense of life, of continuity.” This contrast is embodied in the form of the inflatable rabbit, which first appeared as a vinyl readymade and returns here cast in stainless steel. While the crinkles and curves of vinyl are represented with uncanny accuracy, the original toy’s pastel colors and smiling face are now effaced by a uniform sheen. With this gesture, Koons opens the figure to a wider range of interpretations. It has been compared to the Playboy and Easter bunnies, a helmeted spaceman, or an orator wielding a microphone. The fact that the rabbit’s head reflects and distorts those who observe it, further suggests that the source of its meaning lies in all of us.
