| Artist: | Jeff Koons |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | New Hoover Convertibles, New Shelton Wet/Dry | |
| Date: | 1981-1986 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Postmodernism | |
| Movement: | Neo-Pop Art | |
| Materials: | sculpture, vacuum cleaners, plexiglass cases | |
| Subject: vacuum cleaners and a rug shampoo machine sealed in a plexiglass display case as part ofThe New show. Playing on the value placed on newness in a commodity culture; these vacuum cleaners have never been used; they are brand new and unsoiled; they are also empty containers, hollow at the core--the root word of vanitas means emptiness. Artifacts of mass culture and its commodity values. Style: Koons uses the strategy of withholding--the vacuum cleners are sealed in the display case where we can't really get at them, and if we did, they would lose their purity and newness. De-contextualizes the objects from their function and re-contextualizes them within the sealed plexiglass display case where we do look on them more critically as artifacts of mass culture and commodity values. Plays on how advertising doesn't deliver on its promises; these vacuum cleaners will not fill the void at the core of commodity-desires; its all empty inside. Context: late capitalistic, consumer-oriented society in which commodity values have overtaken moralvalues; object-lust; material acquisition as a sign of status satisfying desire more than need. Also plays off the value placed on newness in the art world--whatever is hot or trendy. Makes us question what lies behind the hyperreal surface--using objects to fill a void or as props to support identity; My work is very involved with the tragedy of unachievable states of being. | ||
