6. Jeff Koons – Basket Balls 1985
Long before Damien Hirst had a shark killed off the coast of Australia, shipped to the UK and dumped in a tank of formaldehyde, Jeff Koons was confiscating balls that ended up in his garden, and putting them in tanks of water. This is one of a series of tanks Koons made in 1985 for his first solo exhibition, entitled Equilibrium. The tanks, glass vitrines supported on black steel stands, were made in three sizes, holding one, two or three professional basketballs. The Total Equilibrium Tanks are completely filled with distilled water and a small amount of sodium chloride reagent, to assist the hollow balls in remaining suspended in the centre of the liquid. In a second version, the 50/50 Tanks, only half the tank is filled with distilled water, with the result that the balls float half in and half out of the water. Just one of the many works from the toy chest of America’s most successful artist having been described in the press as the king of the overpriced world of bad art.