Cultured: Article Daniel Arsham
Cultured recently published an article on Daniel Arsham. The article is about his first major solo exhibition in the U.S. Wherever You Go, There You Are at Orange County Museum of Art. The article discusses his artistic practice and reflects on the exhibition at OCMA, curated by Heidi Zuckerman. It was written by Sophie Lee and can be read at the link below.
“The archaeological works began with an interest in or a questioning around history and the idea that what we’ve learned in school has been very definitive: ‘these things happened’ or ‘this is truth,’” says Arsham. Having undergone a “material transformation” into natural substances like volcanic ash or crystal, his renderings of commonplace items distort the surroundings that viewers take for granted, and “that causes a confusion in the objects for the audience,” Arsham continues, “They’re looking at something from their own experience, but it feels like something from the past, which is confusing. The works become like problems that people try to unravel.”
Read moreABOUT Daniel Arsham
Born in 1980 in Cleveland Ohio, OH, USA
Lives and works in New York, NY, USA
New York based artist Daniel Arsham work explores the fields of fine art, architecture, performance, design and film. Raised in Miami, Arsham attended the Cooper Union in New York City where he received the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award in 2003.
Soon thereafter Arsham toured worldwide with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as the company’s stage designer. The experience lead to an ongoing collaborative practice which continues as Arsham works with world renowned artists, musicians, designers, and brands.
Arsham’s uchronic aesthetics revolves around his concept of fictional archaeology. Working in sculpture, architecture, drawing and film, he creates and crystallizes ambiguous in-between spaces or situations, and further stages what he refers to as future relics of the present. Always iconic, most of the objects that he turns into stone refer to the late 20th century or millennial era, when technological obsolescence unprecedentedly accelerated along with the digital dematerialization of our world. While the present, the future and the past poetically collide in his haunted yet playful visions between romanticism and pop art, Daniel Arsham also experiments with the timelessness of certain symbols and gestures across cultures.
In 2008, Arsham co-founded Snarkitecture with architect Alex Mustonen. Snarkitecture is a collaborative design practice established to investigate the boundaries between the disciplines of art and architecture. Snarkitecture focuses on the reinterpretation of everyday materials, structures and programs to new and imaginative effect. The studio’s work includes installations, architectural environments and objects for a diverse range of clients such as Beats by Dre, Calvin Klein, COS, Design Miami, Gufram, Kith, New Museum, and Valextra.
