I was reading something about the artist Jeff Koons and the fact that his piece ‘Balloon dog (orange)’ sold for a world record auction price for a piece of work by a living artist in November 2013. It sold for a staggering $58.4 million. Art critics are apparently divided over whether he’s due to be historically important or whether his works are crass and kitsch and are the product of cynical self-marketing.
Personally I love shiny stuff and I also love things that are comically out of proportion so the massive shiny metal balloon dogs are something that really appeal to me. Although whether I’d pay the best part of $60 million for one (even if I had it) remains to be seen. Anyway, all that may seem beside the point but now here’s the segue back to today’s piece. I recently had a very strange dream which I think was influenced by the article on Koons that I had read. It made little sense – as dreams are wont to do but one residing image I had of that dream is pretty much what you see before you. A man staring quizzically at the large and shiny Koons balloon dog that he has on a piece of string. I’d like to think it some kind of sub-conscious commentary on art as a commodity but I’m pretty sure I’m far too shallow for that. So there you have it. Take from that what you will…
Oh, and it’s all done on some fancy handmade rag paper which is slightly more absorbent that I thought it would be but I guess you live and learn.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Down boy!
Media: Spraypaint, stencils and imagination.
Size: 30 x 60cm
Here at id-iom we are relentless wombles and nothing escapes the all seeing eye for identifying potentially useful junk. In the studio we had a helium balloon of unknown origin, but we had somehow acquired it all the same. Having been a strangely comforting presence in the studio for months now it would follow you from room to room without ever seeming to deflate. It was becoming quite the talking point. Anyway, after a few small impromptu beers on Thirsty Thursday we managed to lose the balloon. The next morning we tried to piece together our last memories of the old girl and this picture is our best attempt at a visual representation of our available memory. If only it was all a little clearer…
I was reading something about the artist Jeff Koons and the fact that his piece ‘Balloon dog (orange)’ sold for a world record auction price for a piece of work by a living artist in November 2013. It sold for a staggering $58.4 million. Art critics are apparently divided over whether he’s due to be historically important or whether his works are crass and kitsch and are the product of cynical self-marketing.
Personally I love shiny stuff and I also love things that are comically out of proportion so the massive shiny metal balloon dogs are something that really appeal to me. Although whether I’d pay the best part of $60 million for one (even if I had it) remains to be seen. Anyway, all that may seem beside the point but now here’s the segue back to today’s piece. I recently had a very strange dream which I think was influenced by the article on Koons that I had read. It made little sense – as dreams are wont to do but one residing image I had of that dream is pretty much what you see before you. A man staring quizzically at the large and shiny Koons balloon dog that he has on a piece of string. I’d like to think it some kind of sub-conscious commentary on art as a commodity but I’m pretty sure I’m far too shallow for that. So there you have it. Take from that what you will…
Oh, and it’s all done on some fancy handmade rag paper which is slightly more absorbent that I thought it would be but I guess you live and learn.
We have recently completed a swap deal with the lovely and very talented Mimilove. If you haven’t checked her stuff out before check her flickr here and her most amusing blog here. We didn’t give her much to go on for hers but she did her research and came up with this lovely piece which references a few of our favourite things, namely graffiti, the Isle of Man (where we are from) and Manx cats:
Keeping a general cat theme to the whole thing we then managed to come up with this by way of response. Apparently ‘An Army of Mimi’ has been well received so i’m calling that a good swap – everybody’s happy! The picture doesn’t really do justice to the glitter we put on the heart though:
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