SLIDE 07 JEFF KOONS - BALLOON DOG

This whimsical Jeff Koons sculpture may be one of his most famous pieces, but since Koons is a conceptual artist, talented engineers behind the scenes must be employed to translate his exacting visions into reality. Creating a balloon dog out of cast stainless steel is no simple task, and three design teams were rejected before Kyle's then-employer (Peter Carlson) plopped the metal dog onto Kyle's drawing board. Kyle was quickly faced with the idiosyncrasies of stainless that warped wildly with every weld. He strategized around the heat warps by designing internal hydraulic rams to compensate against the warping, and also designed special sanders for the unusually perfect (yet curved) surface of the stainless structure. The dog is shiny and smooth as a mirror, but has yet to be trained to fetch slippers or a newspaper.

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