jeff koons – popeye @ serpentine gallery

when we were walking through hyde park on sunday afternoon towards the serpentine gallery, lady worthington confessed. she admitted that she didn’t quite get jeff koons’ work. and whilst i didn’t express it at the time, neither did i.

take the below piece (let’s call it ‘doggy paddle’). on first glance, or when viewing online you can be forgiven to thinking it’s just a suspended kiddy paddling pool filled with wood. but how does it stay up like that without any sign of stress?

after reading the plaque i found out that the pool (like most of his work) was cast out of aluminum. it’d been sprayed to look precisely like plastic or rubber. i mean exactly like plastic. amazing.

all his works required a double take; subsequently each item had a full time member of staff purely to stop people from touching it to determine it’s authenticity- whether it’s aluminum or just plastic. the paintings too looked like collage, then airbrush, but on even closer inspection revealed highly-skilled brushwork.

in calling it the ‘popeye series’ koons references the loveable cartoon character’s catchphrase “i am what i am”. the problem is, we’re not ever quite sure what that is.

at least after our little outing we were a little closer to finding out.