Jeff Koons
Archer, Michael (Goldsmiths College)
In Jeff Koons¿s One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (1985), a Spalding basketball floats in the center of a glass tank that stands on a four-legged black metal structure. It has been called one of the defining works of the 1980s--but also described (by such critics as Craig Owens, Rosalind Krauss, and Hal Foster) as "an endgame, " "misleading, " and "repulsive." The work presents what the artist called "the ultimate state of being"--neither death ...