hyde or die

Jeff Koons Train, Whenever Carlson finishes it? (left)

George Wyllie Straw Locomotive 1987 (right)

LACMA on Fire  has an entry about how Koons’ train is too similar to Wylie’s train.  These are the similarities they list:

• Both are life-size steam locomotives
• Both are suspended from a crane (Glasglow’s 200-foot Finnieston crane v. a 161-foot construction crane for L.A.) 
• Even the color schemes are similar: black, red, and yellow(ish). via…

Really? Reaching much?  I think this commissioned piece is…well, not up to par with his other works and/or a good example of Koons’ talent, but a rip-off? Hardly.  Here is my lovely bulleted list of why they aren’t similar:

• Composition is completely different.
• Sounds silly, but I think that 40 ft of crane really makes a difference.
• Straw vs. actual metal? The materials matter in the message conveyed. 
• Although I’m still upset about Koons stealing the idea for that Michael Jackson/Bubbles sculpture from the guy who sells all the stuffed tigers on the corner of La Brea and Olympic.  

August 21, 2009, 11:39am  

Jeff Koons Train 2008-Whenever Carlson finishes it and Govan pays

Last night when I was going to bed and all I could hear outside was the type of windstorm that makes me think I’ve just won a one-way ticket out of Kansas to get a new pair of shoes and a warrant out for my arrest for accidental manslaughter, I got to thinking about this Koons’ Train business.

While last night’s winds were not of tornado caliber, they are definitely the type that constitute wind advisories with gusts up to 45 mph. I know that 99% of the time here in LA we can count on relatively mild weather, but you can’t exclude this kind of wind when thinking about a hanging sculpture of this kind. This brings me to another point I would like to make: Just because the piece looks nice and you would like it to be public art, these intentions do not make said piece appropriate, capable, or necessarily safe to be a public space installation.

Examples from LACMA in the last year or so alone.

• Charles Ray’s Fire Truck didn’t last 6 months

• Jeff Koons Tulips lasted a little longer than the truck

• Barbara Kruger’s Elevator Didn’t function properly for that long, and had to be shut down.  When it did work, for that short amount of time, it was pretty slow.

I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, but 45 mph winds at least once a year (not including the Santa Anas), doesn’t sound like the safest situation for a full size engine to be hanging from a crane.  Wear and tear on the joints from the resultant swinging would be significant.  Anywho, just putting that out there and hoping that I’m not the only one thinking about this ahead of time.

March 23, 2009, 10:35am  

Jeff Koons Train Date to be whenever it is installed..if that ever happens

Ok, first of all….I have feelings about this Train business that are well known, but for some reason neither Michael Govan nor Jeff Koons care to take my opinion into the matter and the project is still underway.  I was just reading about it at theartnewspaper.com and I don’t think I am being crazy that the tone of the article was not exactly optimistic.  I am not going to assume that this has to do with the ludicrous nature of the project or the price tag and that it is just a journalistic impartialistic* nature, but I have not read one positive piece of press about this. 

They also noted in the article about  Michael Heizer’s piece that is to be installed, which is a granite boulder weighing tons suspended above a walkway.  Now, I like to think this has nothing to do with my physics background but the engineering at BCAM lately doesn’t seem to be the most reliable**, so don’t judge me if I just take pictures from a distance.

*I am aware that this is probably not a word, but it should be because it fits in the sentence.

**Barbara Kruger’s elevator? Anyone?

March 04, 2009, 10:30am  

Jeff Koons Train (conception) 2010

So LACMA is going to build this crazy train thing and Esquire is really pumped about it “If it gets built” (which is kind of where my mind is at right now, if) but for them to say that it “will become the first iconic monument of the 21st century” is kind of a stretch.  I can think of two Chris Burden sculptures that already seem more monumental, the Skyscraper he did in NY and his Lights installed in front of…LACMA, actually. 

To top it all off, Koons said something weird and druggy about it “I really didn’t have any ideas, but I saw off in the distance a crane out in the field, and I thought, you know, the crane’s such a great image, it’s a wonderful readymade, it’d be really nice to do something with it. And I guess also, on kind of a subconscious level, it’s like a Led Zeppelin stairway to heaven or something.”  I wonder how Page and Plant feel about that.

Jeff, can I call you Jeff? Jeff, really? This is the best you could come up with for a massive installation?  I agree cranes and trains are iconic, and it’s cute that they rhyme, but it seems to me like you are getting lazy.  You have done some truly amazing stuff, but it seems like you woke up one morning, and realized that Michael Govan called last week and you haven’t called him back about an idea for a piece yet, so you just threw this together last minute so you could get it to him before he had that meeting with the Board.  Just saying. 

October 10, 2008, 3:03pm