Daniel Arsham: The art of transcending time and materiality
New York-based Arsham’s varied oeuvre of pieces means many things to many people.
But much of Arsham’s work has been inspired by a traumatic childhood experience. He was 12 when he hid in a reinforced closet at his house in Miami, as Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida in 1992.¹ Lasting memories from this experience included “decimated drywall, shattered glass, pink insulation turned to mush, and warped aluminium studs”.
These apocalyptic scenes seem to have left an indelible mark on Arsham’s work. Describing some of his sculptures, he says, “it’s about taking this material that has no purpose, that’s broken, that’s useless, and remaking it back into a figure, or an object that has that kind of intention behind it”.
He also explores the concept of time; his eroding sculptures seem to take us on a temporal journey to some liminal zone between the past, present, and future. It’s also well-established in psychology that trauma can trap a person in an alien reality, in that “the traumatic past becomes present, and the future loses all meaning other than endless repetition”².
Aesthetically, although there is a definite monochromatic, Greco-Roman, sculptural flavour that runs through his work, this is also softened by a delicate Japanese sensibility. A desire to calm the bold emotions with a calming, Zen embrace.
Arsham’s works resonate with us because he elevates the seemingly mundane to something surreal. The centrepiece of our Waiting Lounge is an audio-visual display of his very first NFT. It’s a digital depiction of a Roman bust from the Louvre, that erodes gradually every day for 12 months, before reforming. The vista is set in a serene Japanese garden, that changes with the seasons. Between this and the Happy Gas, we’re sure you will feel well-relaxed.
¹ A.B., “Working up a Storm”. The Economist, January 8th 2013
² Stolorow, R.D., “Trauma Destroys Time”. Psychology Today, October 21st 2015