Atlantica - 01.07.2004, Side 21

A T L A N T I C A 19
ASSEMBLY LINES AND FAC-
TORIES
Over the years, Jeff Koons has
distanced himself from hands-
on work with the projects he
undertakes, opting instead for a
role as the idea man. He
employs a team of Italian crafts-
people to produce the sculp-
tures for his exhibitions.
“I always worked on my
own when I was younger and
then when I started to work
with boundaries, all of a sudden
other people would come in
and say, ‘we’re going to put this
in wax for you, and then we’re
going to put it in metal,’ and so
there was a certain distance
that took place there. And yet,
as an artist you would come
back and you would approve
the wax and you would say,
‘that looks good, but could you
make that line there a little
sharper.’ And so I understood
that I still had the same amount
of control as if I’d do it
myself.”
This collaboration with others
has taken another form, as
when Koons has worked in the
past with scientists like Nobel
Prize Laureate in Physics, Dr.
Richard Feynman. With this
work, he needed help suspend-
ing basketballs in fish tanks.
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011 Airmail ATL 404 20.6.2004 10:02 Page 19