Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train

Jim Beam — J.B. Turner Train was the centerpiece of Jeff Koons’s gallery debut of the Luxury and Degradation series. The works focus on the discord between the marketing of alcohol as a luxury product associated with leisure, sex, and sophistication, and the often destructive, ugly, and unintended effects of drinking to excess. The outside appearance and promise of something are in opposition to its interior life and meaning. Cast in stainless steel, each of the seven train cars holds a fifth of bourbon. Koons takes Jim Beam’s collectible decanter train set and turns what the company promoted as a rare collectible object into a truly rare luxury object: an artwork. Inside, however, is the same common spirit available at every liquor store.