Interview
Subject to Object
Penetrating Transcendence
by Robyn Coffey
JEFF KOONS
Q: What is the sexiest work you’ve made?
A: “Ilona’s Asshole.”
It’s a close-up of myself penetrating my ex-wife,
and on her ass you can see a lot of pimples.
The vocabulary of sex is a metaphor for the removal of guilt and shame—
the acceptance of one’s self. Art as a whole is about transcendence.
It starts off with the self, the artist accepting and trusting in self,
and transcending from subjective art to objective art, which is the acceptance of others.
Q: What’s the sexiest work of all time?
A: La Gimlette (Girl with a Dog), circa 1770, by Jean-Honore Fragonard.
It’s a very baroque, sexual painting.
ANNIE SPRINKLE
Q: What is the sexiest work you’ve made?
A: My new work. It’s all about love. My partner [University of California Santa Cruz art professor Elizabeth Stevens] and I do a wedding every year. It’s a big love fest. Sex can be part of that, but it’s making love. We only knew three people at the wedding [in Calgary, Alberta], and there were 250 people there. It’s a beautiful performance art event, but we got legally married. My sexiest work is all the most recent.
“The last thing I worked on is always the sexiest.”
Q: What’s the sexiest work of all?
A: Performance artist Marina Abramovic’s book and film, Balkan Epic.”
“It’s more than just sexy, it stimulates all my chakras.”
photo by Mark Ritchie
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