How the Hell Do You Make a Koons Piece?

I’ve wondered forever. The Times has a story up about his fabrication company:

Is it possible to make a full-scale 70-foot model of the locomotive so that it is hyper-realistic and semifunctional — with wheels spinning as fast as 100 miles per hour and steam belching three times a day — and also make it lightweight enough to be safe? How much would the whole thing — which could easily top $25 million — actually cost to build? How long would it take? And what would happen in the event of an earthquake?

For answers they turned straight to one source: Carlson & Company in San Fernando, Calif. One of the art world’s leading fabricators, it specializes in making artworks that are too large, industrial, labor-intensive, time-consuming or otherwise complex for the artists to make in their own studios. Its clients over the years have included artists as diverse as Isamu Noguchi, Ellsworth Kelly, the duo Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen and, perhaps most prominent, Mr. Koons.

I’ve always been a little lukewarm about Koons, though his standards are impeccable. I do hope that locomotive gets built—it should be wonderful and frightening, and a shot right across the bow of Charles Ray’s Firetruck, which was parked out in front of various museums.

Image: Librado Romero/The New York Times.