Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Whatever Happened to Puppy?

Jeff Koons
Puppy, December 1995 - March 1996
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Kaldor Art Projects

The Artswipe was feeling kinda nostalgic this week. So much so I started thinking about Jeff Koons. (When I'm nostalgic I always think about artists who made a splash in the 80s and early-mid-90s. Don't we all?) Amidst the flood of fond memories, I recalled the time I helped out on the installation for Jeff Koons's Puppy when it was being planted outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in the early-mid-90s. (A quick Google search revealed it was 1995/1996 - geez sorry for the lack of specificity - if it wasn't for the web I would not remember for sniffing so much weedkiller in my day... Plus I forgot to add that week of gardening to my Art CV).

Overcome by the return of a repressed memory, I took a trip down to Circular Quay today just to reminisce. I started thinking about the old days - the gentler times - when volunteerism was in my blood and I would help out on
all the big installs - Biennales, Triennials, Perspectas, Puppies - just so I could one day land a job as a museum guide or cloak room clerk. Trekking down to the Quay this afternoon, I made my way past the waterside theatre sports and began walking to the MCA just so I could lie down on the grass and think of Puppy and how much s/he meant to me. Puppy may not be there anymore in reality, but s/he lingers on like a cultural phantom limb, just aching to be scratched. Easily distracted, I had an instant craving for a cheeseburger-hold-the-gherkins. As I crossed the road in a beeline to McDonalds I walked past Customs House and my heart stopped...

There before me was a little floral roadside tribute to Puppy.

The Artswipe
Puppy (In progress), 2008
Public Access Art

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The nineties ended when Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix and Jeff Buckley and Kathy Acker and William Burroughs and Joe Coleman and Abby Hoffman and Michael Hutchence and Paula Yates died.

Anonymous said...

..........a gonk?

Skanky Jane said...

That's funny!

Anonymous said...

Dear artswipe - i will put up a video of puppy at the mca on you tube for you - will let you know when its up

JD

Jorge said...

Not long ago Puppy was in Bilbao (Spain)