Koons began using ready-made household objects in an earlier group of works, entitled The New. Dunkelstein, or the Secretary of Defense, and one could have been me, or Baselitz, or whoever. You could take one of those basketball stars, Dr.

What was paralleling this message was that white middle-class kids have been using art the same way that other ethnic groups have been using basketball – for social mobility. So the underlying theme, really, was that death is the ultimate state of being. You can achieve it too! And the bronzes were the tools for Equilibrium that would kill you if you used them.

The Nike posters were the Sirens – the great deceivers, saying Go for it! I have achieved it. The tanks were an ultimate state of being. These depict American basketball heroes wearing Nike trainers and other sportswear, holding and surrounded by basketballs. To complement the tanks, Koons framed a series of advertising posters created by the sportswear company Nike and hung them on the walls. A group of objects cast in bronze, including a lifeboat and an aqualung (see Vest with Aqualung, Tate L02184), were exhibited at the same time. In a second version, the 50/50 Tanks, only half the tank is filled with distilled water, with the result that the balls float half in and half out of the water. The Total Equilibrium Tanks are completely filled with distilled water and a small amount of sodium chloride reagent, to assist the hollow balls in remaining suspended in the centre of the liquid. The tanks, glass vitrines supported on black steel stands, were made in three sizes, holding one, two or three professional basketballs. This is one of a series of tanks Koons made in 1985 for his first solo exhibition, entitled Equilibrium, at the New York gallery, International With Monuments.

Modern fish tank art