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Milou Dijkstal

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Daniel Arsham’s world of ARTefacts

Art Review

Milou Dijkstal
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The Presence of Art
Christoph Rausch
group 2
University College Maastricht
2041 words
5th December 2014
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There are many who claim the end of art is near, with every method being explored, if not
completely exploited. Referring to previous movements and artists in contemporary art is a common
action. However, an emerging artist must be refreshing somehow, a highly skilled painting or
realistic sculpture simply will not do anymore. We can ask ourselves whether it is (still) possible to
be original? And if so, how? Daniel Arsham is the kind of artist that proves it is indeed possible. He
even goes so far in breaking the conventions that an artist can only be specialised in one single way
of doing or making art and the intertwinement of different art waves resulting in confusion of an art
piece. He does so by distributing his creativity in all fields of the art world and he is not afraid to
take the risk of combining the past with the future. It is therefore not surprising to see an extensive
amount of recognition from all across the globe, in terms of prestigious exhibitions, collaborations
and art prizes. Apart from being represented by Galerie Perrotin in Paris, Hong Kong and New
York, OHWOW in Los Angeles, Baro Galeria in Sao Paolo and Pippy houldsworth in London,
several monographs have been published of Arsham’s work.

The Miami-bred Artist walks the line between art, performance and architecture. The latter is a
prevalent subject throughout his work; landscapes where nature overrides structures, environments
with eroded walls and stairs leading nowhere, and a general sense of playfulness within existing
architecture. Arsham manages to break the physics and makes architecture do what it is not
supposed to do, twisting around everyday experience to create confusion by surprising our
expectations of common space and form. Being influenced by his childhood experiences of
hurricanes sweeping through Florida, he sculpts the apparently still-present scars into his works of
art: shattered glass reshaped into anxious human forms, figures smothered under resin shaped as
fabrics. “Architecture has always played a pivotal role in my work” the artist says, “Think about the
storm as a quick, violent dismemberment: How can I manipulate architecture to make it as
unsettling or uncanny as a storm? This is where I’m trying to reside, in place that is simultaneously
familiar and unsettling”. 


The use of simple paradoxical gestures are dominating in his sculptural work. A figure wrapped up
in the surface of a wall, a contemporary (technological) object covered in volcanic ash as if it was
retrieved from a futuristic archeological site; another one of his many collaborations. This time
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working with R&B producer Pharell, a 1980s Casio keyboard was manipulated in such a way to make it
appear ancient. He presented a similar work at this
years Art Basel art fair; Locust Projects, an exhibition
gallery in Miami, was transformed into an excavation
site deep in the floor. Thousands of petrified, eroded
and calcified artefacts of the 20th century have been
buried(boomboxes, camera, electric guitars, game
controllers, cell phones and so on), all rendered in
crystal, volcanic ash and other minerals.
Arsham explained the collection, saying he took the Daniel Arsham: Welcome to the Future, Locust
Projects, 3852 North Miami Avenue, Miami
past and jumped over the present into the future in
order to create confusion regarding the time period.
2This way, he synthesises a future civilisation, where a cold, entropic sense of beauty empowers
nature over culture, often being compared to .G. Ballard’s crystalline worlds. However, people’s
lives can only be wondered about or guessed at from afar. The objects, also shown in the Pippy
Houldsworth gallery, were described as looking like 20th century artefacts, uncovered by some
curious future race.

The artist started off painting gouaches on Mylar, a special type of stretched polyester film. He
would fall back in the style of modernist architectural drawings. White building encrusted in
icebergs, the North Atlantic Series from 2004, and in The Return series in 2005, fragments of
staircases, piles of rectangular blocks or rectilinear posts emerging from the sky, as if a former
catastrophe had descended over time into a disintegrated but purer world supported by a unified,
peaceful background of large trees. His gouaches display a strange precariousness, where means do
not imply ends due to a stylistic decision and a transition of attitude. Arsham’s moral adaptation
seems to me based on a blend of familiar information, like uninhabited architecture in the shades of
white, blue, black and green.

Arsham’s style combines elements from minimalism’s transformation of building supplies,

surrealist dreamscapes, art deco façades, organic art nouveau, pop art’s combinations and collages
of pictures, notions of F.L. Wright’s architectural drawings and everything technology can offer.

Modernism resides in his works like a haunting spirit from ancient history, freezing architecture in
time. Although Modernism’s offspring, pop, minimalism, expressionism and conceptual art have
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aged, they transmit the ‘evolutionary code’ for his contemporary architectural manipulations. The
‘architectones’ trigger emotions such as melancholy, or as Martine Bouchier expressed it; the
‘sublime yielded by the impression of an impassive invasion, by nature’s slow and gradual labour’.
Arsham travels from subjectivity to universality, like the rationalists from De Stijl, but he does not
strive utopian impact, therefore contrasting from the Dutch Calvinists. What he instead strives for is
the ‘phenomenological transportation’ and he is deeply interested in the investigation and
celebration of the event.

Daniel Arsham: The Return #2, The Return Series,

2008, Gallerie Perrotin.



The most striking I find is the longevity of the architectural forms, geometry and of flawless white.
What we see is a ruin, but without the violence of contemporary destructive phenomena. The works
coexist with our modern world tragedies imposed by the destruction and violence of wars,
terrorism, natural catastrophes and the urban development of major cities, but somehow everything
simultaneously emanates the absence of conflict, the sense of slowness and peace. It is in this way
that Arsham portrays a politico-cultural context that finds a visual echo that imitates, underscores
and exaggerates reality through the forms created, even if indirectly.

Ashram’s exploration of different art fields took departure when in 2005 Merce Cunningham, an
American dancer and choreographer dominating the modern dance culture, contacted the artist
requesting a collaboration. Arsham, being completely surprised took on the challenge and came up
with ODE/EON. This was the idea of a dancer leaving the stage on the left side, going round the
back to enter again at the right side. Arsham, of course, altered this by recasting the whole concept
vertically, placing the top of the building on the floor and letting the base drop from the ceiling.
Apart from that, he had a wall installed at each venue on the tour, which he would break through
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during the performance, letting light fall onto the dark stage. This way he created a contrast exactly
where the work lies, and simultaneously he was part of the art piece.
His work proved to be such a success, The Walker Museum acquired his stage design for its
permanent collection. Although never having been trained in stage design, he continues his practice
in stage, collaborating with well known names in the performance world, such as Robert Wilson
and Jonah Bokaer. The collaborations are performed worldwide, from the Hellenic Festival in
Athens to Jacobs Pillow dance festival in Massachusetts to the prestigious Festival de Avignon.

Daniel Arsham, ODE/EON, 2005.

The next field up for exploration and expansion was film. Ascham wanted to expand the ‘Future
Relics’ series (The contemporary archeological findings), so he started the second chapter ‘Future
Relics 2’ using film as the main medium. The 9-minute long film features a worker, played by the
known James Franco, most likely living in a futuristic era. The worker spends his days in an
underground ‘bunker’ indexing and destroying objects stemming from the a historical civilisation.
The project was shot over a period of four days, in Arsham’s studio located in Brooklyn. The
project is just a taste of what the Miami Native has in mind to screen at the Tribe Film Festival of
2016. James Franco stated he volunteered to collaborate because he could easily relate to Arsham’s
vision. “I try to look at the world as a repository of antiquated artefacts and experience, all of them
worth preserving” the actor stated.

To even further expand the possibilities of manipulation of space and collaboration, Arsham
founded, together with partner Alex Mustonen, Snarkitecture in 2007 in order to serve new and
imaginative purposes. It operates in territories between art and architecture. The two artists were
inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem The Hunting of The Shark, which described an “impossible
voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature”. The project investigates the
unknown within architecture by manipulating and reinterpreting existing material as well as
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structures to create a spectacular effect. The artists describe their aim as exploring the boundaries of
disciplines, studio design, architectural scale projects and functional objects with new purposes.
There is a focus on the viewer’s experience, demanding interaction though moments of wonder
which allow people to engage with their surrounding environment. It makes the architecture
perform the unexpected by transforming the familiar into the extraordinary. For example, the piece
‘Pillow’ is a pillow constructed of white gypsum cement but reduced to the size of roughly 2 hands,
specially designed for a smartphone, or as described on the online shop, “Pillow is designated to
provide a dedicated and memorable resting place for your phone”. Not only this is interesting but
also the fact that many of the Snarkitecture objects are available for purchase, and for extremely
reasonable prices. One can already own a ‘Pillow’ for 85 dollars. The groundbreaking thing here is
that Arsham breaks an incredibly big and significant belief of our modern society, that is high
(contemporary) art is only available to the very wealthy. Although many of his works easily sell for
millions, it can almost be seen as admirable that the duo choose to make the art available to the
public. This thought gets another boost considering they have an online shop.

Snarkitecture/Daniel Arsham was selected as one of three artists for the decoration of the Orange
Bowl baseball stadium located in Miami. Their contribution regarding the columns supporting the
main framework of the stadium give the illusion that the columns are concealed and revealed
through as light facade up and down the columns. The pair also worked on a new project named
‘Dig’ located in the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City. The gallery space was
infilled with a solid volume of foam which was then excavated using tools to create a “cavernous
space for work and play”. Arsham is an artist of commercialisation, collaborating with brands such
as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Calvin Klein and many more prestigious names. This gives him a two sided
character, one side seems to comment on our consumerism and promotes the accessibility for the
public and the other side working with partners who commercialise on a daily basis and who make
art a very elitist asset.

Snarkitecture, Dig, 2011, installation in New York. Daniel Arsham, Glass sculpture, 2011
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Through structural experiment, historical inquiry, and satirical wit Arsham has managed to create a
strangely beautiful, hypothetical world where objects have lost their physical domination but
retained their aesthetic power. The art exhibits a splendid stylistic modality and a beautifully forced
end to be contemplated. What is thought to be absolute seems dynamic. Arsham lets us loose
between these poles of rationality and chaos in a mysterious zone invigorating the absurdity of both.
His work challenges our perceptions of physical space in order to make architecture do what is
normally not possible. Arsham is an artist unlike any before, not only being multi talented but also
being able to successfully explore every field of the art world. He never fails to surprise and
exceeds expectations with each and every work. His ongoing list of prestigious exhibitions and
collaborations is thus entirely genuine and rightfully earned. It is certain we will hear from him
again in the near future, which looks extremely promising.