A Copy of Deflated Sculptures III: 2014

Jonathan Monk takes as his point of departure a pink inflatable rabbit linked to Jeff Koons, but instead of preserving its polished, iconic presence, he reimagines it as a process of gradual collapse. In a series of five stainless steel pieces, the form is shown at different stages of deflation: first gently slackening, then slumping to one side, leaning against the gallery wall, and ultimately crumpling into an indistinct mass on its pedestal. Where Koons transformed banal, everyday objects into symbols of grandeur, Monk reverses that gesture by stripping away their inflated monumentality. The result is a quietly humorous reinterpretation that both diminishes and recontextualizes the object, while also echoing the playful material sensibility of Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures.