Koons

Damien Hirst has a gallery in Vauxhall, on Newport Street.  It is hidden away near the extremely disappointing Lambeth Walk. I went there for the first time a couple of weeks ago to see the Jeff Koons exhibition.

I am familiar with Koons, as I imagine most people are, through his very famous balloon animal like sculptures, particularly the red dog.  Incidentally the best portrayal of this piece I have seen is in the otherwise fairly poor Night at the Museum 2 where it bounces around as the protagonists walk through the Smithsonian art gallery.

Back to the subject in hand,  being only down the road from my work and being intrigued, and perhaps most important of all, it being free, I went along.

The good stuff first.  It is a nice gallery.  It has a series of very good, nicely lit spaces, including a large gallery which can be view from above by way of a mezzanine.  It is sensibly arranged and you can flow through it with ease.  It can hold some very good exhibitions.  It also houses Pharmacy 2 an achingly trendy, medium priced and garish to the point of repellent restaurant.  Having seen the decor of the restaurant I can see why Hirst likes Koons. 

Having seen the exhibition I do not like Koons (at least his work, the man himself from interviews etc seems delightful).

The first rooms is a series of hovers from the 70s (and similar gadgets) tastefully lit in Perspex boxes.  Initial impact of , huh that’s fun, then nothing.  There is only so long one can look at a hover.
The next room in the above mentioned large gallery is a huge metallic blue balloon animal, possibly a cat.  It is am imposing piece and the star of the show.  Again though it didn’t hold my attention for very long.

The next room is hard core porn.  The slightly embarrassed looking security guard warns you not to take photos before you go in.  It is explicitly and exploitative (of women) and also, dull. If you’ve been on the internet at all it is nothing you won’t have seen before except with the addition of a garish background.  There is an initial shock but I couldn’t help that this was just a social excuse for polite people to look at porn in public.  In the middle of the room there was a sort of pastelish enormous bowl with eggs in. 

Moving swiftly on and up the stairs the next room was shiny metallic objects including a model of a 1800s American train set.   This was my favourite piece, not because it was particularly interesting art, but because I wanted to play with it.  I suspect this is the point, and as I began to have a sneaking suspicion was the point of the exhibition (more on this later).

The final rooms (accessed through the mezzanine from which you gave upon the enormous cat)  included an enormous mound of playdough,  various inflatable beach toys interacting with plastic chairs and a garish picture of some lego. It seems to be a particular kitsch celebration of a certain type of children’s toys.

This then I suspect is the point of the exhibition.  Presumably the juxtaposition of the porn and the childishness of the other pieces is trying to make you think about sexuality and childhood.  It succeed in that I did just that and have now written about it, but it was sledgehammer subtlety, and also not very interesting art.  None of the pieces invite much in the way of contemplation.  A quick glance does not yield anything more than a prolonged examination.

I will say this for Koons, he has a very Koons style and one can recognise his work easily.  I however find both the style and the subject dull.