PaperCity Magazine

April 2015 - Dallas

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DANIEL ARSHAM SHAKES UP THE DALLAS ART FAIR. EASTER ISLAND Daniel Arsham has collaborated with the loftiest of creatives, ranging from Pharrell Williams and Usher to Jay Z, James Franco and the late Merce Cunningham. He consistently rocks people back on their heels with art that gorgeously explores the contours of disclosure and excavation. Most splendidly, he will be ratcheting up the ambient vibe at the Dallas Art Fair: Representative work from his "media series" will be part of the sumptuous cache shown by Galerie Perrotin. Patricia Mora has a tête- à-tête with a modern master of multimedia and the miner of rich genre. Daniel Arsham MAN AND MUSE The New York Times described Daniel Arsham as nerdy, and this is perplexing. Frankly, he's sexily handsome in the same way that Benedict Cumberbatch is. A quiet intelligence percolates behind his attractive and bearded visage. His round spectacles confer a hybrid look that's both professorial and trendy, yielding a persona that's undeniably alluring. But nerdy? Not by light years. And that brings us to yet another point of consideration: Light years is precisely something Arsham might enjoy discussing. His art often is informed by a vision that has a futuristic and undeniable space-age cant to it. "In 2011, I went to Easter Island," he reveals. "And there were archaeologists. So I became interested in archaeology — but a fictionalized form of it." This obsession, plus inspiration gleaned from a trip to Pompeii (where figures remain captured in situ after Mount Vesuvius' blast in the first century, A.D.), were the twin catalysts for a large body of his work. The artist makes it clear that he's projecting us into a world "that's not trompe l'oeil — it's remade, and it may look chaotic and haphazard, but it's all CELEBRITIES ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGS planned." He then launches into a complex discourse upon processes and materials, including oil, water and wax. The latter is useful in creating the rugged look of materials that appear to have eroded during the course of (theoretical) lapsed time. Arsham thrusts us into a future wherein we excavate the present. It's artistic time travel. In fact, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati opened his most recent solo show last month (through August 30) that's dubbed "Remembering the Future." Arsham exercises this dexterous ability to bend time in a number of ways. Glacial Rock Eroded Keyboard, one of his pieces held by Galerie Perrotin that will be shown at the fair, features a carefully "demolished" keyboard formed from glacial rock, as the name suggests; other materials, however, include crushed glass, obsidian, crystal and volcanic ash. Additional items neatly reconfigured for a fabricated "dig" include monochromatic cameras, Mercedes- Benz steering wheels, film projectors, flip phones, PlayStation gadgets and other unexpected things that constitute the tech toys and residue consistent with modernity. Regarding his work on the film Future Relic — headlined by James Franco and created with the aid of hip-hop recording artist Swizz Beatz and fashion designer Richard Chai — Arsham is adamant that he remains "true to a discipline." The lushly photographed piece of cinema glows with smudged pinks and lapis-blue. The coastline setting sometimes glistens with sand and spades that take on the fractal seduction of jewelry — and minted coins are consumed as if they're communion wafers. It's a transcendent-looking world, even if the intimated "future" is somewhat opaque — and certainly indiscernible by viewing only a couple of segments. The film will eventually become a larger narrative comprised of nine sections, any one of which could be a "new media" piece in a gallery or museum, but Arsham insists that they "will be shown at a film festival." Such insistence, however, has a gentle intonation. He speaks softly and seems utterly at ease with his career, which combines the quotidian and the flamboyantly glamorous in equal measure. He did seem anxious, however, to spill the beans about an upcoming Dallas "exhibition that involves two large institutions" — but then he referred us to his PR firm in New York. We suspect it will be yet another exhibition along the lines of his previous body of work that explores excavation and time. It sounds "science-y." But nerdy? Not by a long shot. TIME PRESENT AND TIME PAST ARE BOTH PERHAPS PRESENT IN TIME FUTURE AND TIME FUTURE CONTAINED IN TIME PAST. IF ALL TIME IS ETERNALLY PRESENT ALL TIME IS UNREDEEMABLE. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN IS AN ABSTRACTION REMAINING A PERPETUAL POSSIBILITY ONLY IN A WORLD OF SPECULATION. — T.S. Eliot Daniel Arsham's Glacial Rock Eroded Hollow Guitar, 2014, at Galerie Perrotin, Dallas Art Fair BOTH IMAGES COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GALERIE PERROTIN, NYC, PARIS & HONG KONG

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