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拍品專文
An enigmatic, seductive sculpture from the artist’s watershed Equilibrium series, Jeff Koons’s Snorkel (Generic) transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. The work is a meticulous simulacrum cast in glimmering bronze from a snorkel mould. But for its rich brown patina this snorkel seems ready for coral reef exploration; the sculpture is a testament to Koon’s technical rigour and commitment to precision. Executed in 1985, and held in the same private collection ever since, Snorkel (Generic) was exhibited as part of Koon’s solo debut held that same year at International With Monument, a gallery in New York City’s East Village. The Equilibrium series has since been recognised as a pivotal moment in Koons’s career during which his practice embraced the pristine engineering which would come to characterise so many of his subsequent works. Snorkel (Generic) is part of an edition of three, and sculptures from this series were exhibited in as part of Koons’s 1993 touring retrospective held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
In allowing divers to discover the mysteries of the ocean, Koons’s snorkel alludes to the triumph of man over nature and a means to conquer the unknown. Fabricated in bronze, however, his version transmogrifies a life-giving tool into something lethal; Snorkel (Generic) is an eloquent visualisation of the absurd. Reflecting upon the Equilibrium works, Daniela Salvioni wrote, ‘The contradiction between the purpose of the original objects—to keep one afloat and thus preserve life—and the massive tonnage of the actual sculptures—transforms the objects into a devastating metaphor of impossibility and unsustainability’ (D. Salvioni, ‘Jeff Koons’s Poetics of Class’, in Jeff Koons, exh. cat. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1992, p. 20). The visual paradox at the heart of Snorkel (Generic) illustrates the influence of Surrealism on Koons’s art: to render the functional strange has a long and rich art historical legacy, one that summons images of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ and Meret Oppenheimer’s fur-covered teacup. Yet Snorkel (Generic) unveils its otherworldliness gradually, a detachment viewed through the lens of Pop Art. At once visually arresting and conceptually complicated, it attests to a landmark moment in Koons’s career, in which the artist firmly established his referential compass.
In allowing divers to discover the mysteries of the ocean, Koons’s snorkel alludes to the triumph of man over nature and a means to conquer the unknown. Fabricated in bronze, however, his version transmogrifies a life-giving tool into something lethal; Snorkel (Generic) is an eloquent visualisation of the absurd. Reflecting upon the Equilibrium works, Daniela Salvioni wrote, ‘The contradiction between the purpose of the original objects—to keep one afloat and thus preserve life—and the massive tonnage of the actual sculptures—transforms the objects into a devastating metaphor of impossibility and unsustainability’ (D. Salvioni, ‘Jeff Koons’s Poetics of Class’, in Jeff Koons, exh. cat. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1992, p. 20). The visual paradox at the heart of Snorkel (Generic) illustrates the influence of Surrealism on Koons’s art: to render the functional strange has a long and rich art historical legacy, one that summons images of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ and Meret Oppenheimer’s fur-covered teacup. Yet Snorkel (Generic) unveils its otherworldliness gradually, a detachment viewed through the lens of Pop Art. At once visually arresting and conceptually complicated, it attests to a landmark moment in Koons’s career, in which the artist firmly established his referential compass.