Net artist Michael Green is taking a cue from one of the world’s most expensive artists, Jeff Koons, by placing a ‘Buy it now’ price on eBay of $5800 for his latest artwork: a GIF of a deflating balloon dog, based on Koons’ 1994 Balloon Dog sculpture.
Taken from Green’s tumblr GIF series luxury.obj, which uses digital lighting and texture techniques to explore our desire for luxury objects, with only four days to go he is yet to receive any bids for the work. Hardly surprising, perhaps, as it’s easy enough to right click on the GIF and save it to your desktop.
Green says of the work: “Balloon Dog Deflated is an ironic reworking of the 12 foot stainless steel sculpture, Balloon Dog, by Jeff Koons. Koons would have a staff of the most skilled ’employed’ craftsmen to compose his work.
“Balloon Dog Deflated was conceptually crafted with the same principles of the original: the digital sculpture itself was downloaded legally through a CC license, modeled by Bassam Kurdali and commissioned by Rob Myers, then processed through the 3D animation program Maya for treatment of the textures and the deflation of the balloon.”
Historic purchase
Like Koons, says Green, he was “the CEO of the project, overseeing every detail without ever actually having to create the 3D sculpture, or write code to produce the animation.”
As for the price tag, it is inspired by the $58.4 million that Koons’ Balloon Dog sold for at auction. And, says Green, it offers the opportunity of an historic purchase – one that he believes has the potential to change the lives of artists working in the digital and online realm.
“It would forever change the way people perceive and view the digital art medium, and give artists around the world an opportunity to make a living from their own work.”
