When you think about contemporary art, what works come to mind? A banana taped on a canvas, waiting for a rich mug to have something to brag about? A Jackson Pollock’s action painting? Yayoi Kusama’s polka dot pumpkins, or Warhol’s Marilyn?
I bet the image of Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog is also very likely to form into many people’s mind. It’s iconic, well produced, and divisive enough to nurture endless debates. And so, many artists will of course steal it and incorporate it into their own work, in order to snatch a bit of its prestige.
And so I thought: “Nah….. Not me…. that would be plain boring”…. But hell, why not!? Could be fun to do something around calligraphy with it. I was interested anyway to see how it would feel once flatten and deprived of colours. Would it still be Kawaii?
I also thought about the 19th century ballet Afternoon of a Faun created by Nijinsky. He was a brilliant and talented ballet dancer, but in Afternoon of a Faun he is also the choreographer. He said that he wanted to refer to ancient Egyptian murals, and so the choreography was based on those famous flatten figures depicted on the walls, creating a very flat scene without jumps or pirouettes. Did that inspired The Bangles in turn? I don’t know…
Anyway, it was interesting to depict a famous Western contemporary art sculpture in a somehow Eastern ink style. The title Jeff-kun is a pun: “Jeff-kun” is a familiar pet name in Japan, especially for small dogs; and it sounds of course like Jeff Koons. The small calligraphy next to it is a Japanese proverb that reads: “A dog that walks always find a bone”. It is a sentence with a deep meaning :-).
Jeff-kun the dog will continue to walk and explore the world, with energy and curiosity. And I did snatch a bit of prestige from the original, since I sold it almost instantly. ＼(＾▽＾)／
Should I make another one?
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