A balloon dog begins as one of the simplest party objects: a long latex balloon twisted into an animal, held together by air and never meant to last. Jeff Koons transformed that familiar form into one of the most recognizable images in contemporary art, enlarging it to monumental scale in mirror-polished stainless steel. In 2013, Balloon Dog (Orange) sold at Christie’s for $58.405 million.
Spectres takes the familiar balloon-animal form into precious metal. The piece is fully three-dimensional, preserving the inflated body, pinched joints, upright ears and raised tail that make a balloon dog immediately recognizable while reducing the monumental idea to something that can be held in the hand.
The Proof finish is integral to the interpretation. Highly polished silver reflects and distorts its surroundings, reinforcing the appearance of stretched balloon skin while one troy ounce of .999 silver replaces air and latex with weight and permanence. The material changes completely. The visual contradiction remains.