DANIEL ARSHAM Three Dimensions
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ARSHAM Introduction Work Biography Interview Bibliography/ Credits
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INTRODUCTION
From two-dimensional work to sculpture, installation, public art, and performance, Daniel Arsham produces occasions to reconsider architecture, the natural world, and the manner in which they interact with each other. His aestheticized sculpture and installations realize hypothetical architectural elements and counterintuitive designs, queuing possibilities and coercing material to behave atypically. Whether through his solo creations or collaborations with architects, choreographers and dancers, Arsham presents work that possesses visual drama and minimalist aspects; measures of solid intention and moments unrehearsed; signals of human progress or an entropic future.
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Hiding 2011 | Fibreglass, Gypsum, Paint and Shoes
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Wrinkle (3) 2007 | Canvas, Plaster, Paint
WORK IN THREE DIMENSIONS
Daniel Arsham’s monochromatic simplicity of his sculptures and installations is what captivates us the most. Using materials such as fiberglass, joint compound, plaster, fabric and other accessories, Arsham manipulates architecture and its details, playing with the viewer’s notions of reality. But on a more basic level, it is the tactility of the work that manipulates the viewer: the smoothness, the bulges, the folds and wrinkles, and the suggestion of form. Despite our unwillingness to be pulled in, we feel a need to engage, a desire to interact.
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Ghost Chair 2010 | EPS Foam, Plaster, Laqquer
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Untitled (Project for Dior) 2005 EPS Foam, Paint, Joint compund, Mirror
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Six erosions to the center (3) 2010 Foam, Plaster, Paint
Curtain 2007 EPS Foam, Plaster Gauze
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Falling Clock 2011 | Clock, Fiberglass, Paint, Joint compound
Vent Anomaly 2006 Plaster, Aluminium, Paint
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Mail Slot 2008 | Bronze, Plaster, Paint, Joint compound
Ghosty 2011 Fiberglass, Fabric, Paint
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Sheet 2007 EPS, Plaster, Paint, Fabric, Rubber
Hammock 2007 EPS Foam, Plaster Gauze
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BIOGRAPHY
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b. 1980, Cleveland, OH Contemporary Artist Lives and works in New York, NY, and Miami, FL
Arsham’s work blurs the lines between art, architecture and performance, and explore issues of natural versus manufactured or intention versus happenstance. Through sculpture, drawing and performance, Arsham challenges our perceptions of physical space in order to make architecture perform the improbable. The surfaces of walls appear to melt, erode and ripple. Animals contemplate the emergence of floating shapes in nature. Sculptures from antiquity are infused with rigid, geometric forms. In 2003, Daniel Arsham graduated from Cooper Union in New York City and received the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award. After graduation, Arsham returned to Miami to found seminal artist-run spaces “Placemaker,” and “The House.” His work has been represented with Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, RonMandos Gallery in Amsterdam and OHWOW in Los Angeles, California. Project Collaborations Merce Cunningham 2006 Hedi Silmane 2005 Jonah Bokaer 2007 Snarkitecture 2008
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Corner Knot 2008 | EPS Plaster, Paint, Joint compound
INTERVIEW
The many mediums of work provide Daniel Arsham with a platform to embellish on many techniques that forge his compelling aesthetic. Whether working architecture of mass sizes or twodimensional scultpures or even performance art each installation is defined by a modern approach highlighted by minimalist abstract elements. This interview hosted by James Oliver, discovers more about Arsham, looking at his background to SNARKITECTURE and what he sees for the future.
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James Oliver Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got your breakthrough?
You studied architecture, so how do you feel this provides diversity for you as a contemporary artist?
On the other side, SNARKITECTURE, an initiative you set up with Alex Mustonen is focused on your architecture. How does this compliment and balance your work as a contemporary artist?
Daniel Arsham After I finished school in NYC, I moved back to Miami and opened an exhibition space called “The House” with a few friends. We tore out the first floor of the house and made exhibitions there while living upstairs. I met Bonnie Clearwater, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and she gave me my first museum show. The House was demolished in 2004.
Actually, I didn’t study architecture. In high school, I took an architectural drafting course and failed terribly. My interest in architecture comes from direct experience with it – from watching it come apart and being put back together. After my childhood home was destroyed in a hurricane, I watched much of the reconstruction – how walls and floors were made and roofs supported. Much of my work derives from direct experience with the materiality of architecture.
My practice is divided into three areas; the work I make on my own in sculpture and painting, the work that I have created for stage design with Merce Cunningham in the past and Jonah Bokaer now, and the architectural work that I do with Snarkitecture. These three disciplines overlap and combine in my studio. I’m not interested in making work for only one audience, and I have been fortunate to show in galleries and museums, as well as at some of the best dance festivals and architectural spaces in the world. I’m somewhat of an outsider in each of these worlds. In the theatre and architectural worlds, they see me as an artist, and in the art world, many people think that I come from an architectural background.
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You work on two, three and four dimensions, of course its all very comparable but how does your approach differ and compare?
How has your work evolved since beginning to showcase your work in galleries?
What are some ambitions you have for the future, both short and long term?
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Making paintings are a very solitary practice. Making sculpture, theatre, and architecture often involves teams of people with different skill and knowledge sets. I arrive at my studio at 10 am every morning and leave at 6 pm. I will often shift through all of these mediums and disciplines in the course of a day, but my approach to each is the same.
My work began in the studio with small paintings and drawings. As various opportunities arose, the work went from the proposal stage to something real. My first real gallery show was at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris in 2003. Since then, many of the ideas once only in my drawings have been executed in real space. There are still many more proposals to go, but the galleries will need to get a lot bigger!
In the coming year, I will complete a very large architectural commission in Miami. This is the first time I’ve worked in such a large scale, and I look forward to expanding this part of my practice. When you need to have your work signed by a structural engineer, things are getting interesting! This year, I will continue my work in theatre with a premiere at Jacobs Pillow Dance festival next summer, and Snarkitecture will present some new functional objects at Chicago’s Volume Gallery in April. For the long term, I have written a film script centered around Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg in the year 1964. I’d like to make that film sometime in the next 10 years.
Interviewer: James Oliver Daniel Arsham 20 Jan 2012
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BIBLIOGRAPHY/ CREDITS
List of works: Hiding 2011 Fibreglass, Gypsum, Paint and Shoes Wrinkle (3) 2007 Canvas, Plaster, Paint Ghost Chair 2010 EPS Foam, Plaster, Laqquer Contact: Daniel Arsham Danielarsham.com Snarkitecture snarkitecture.com OHWOW Gallery oh-wow.com Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin perrotin.com Gertrude Contemporary artabase.net/exhibition/87
Untitled (Project for Dior) 2005 EPS Foam, Paint, Joint compund, Mirror Six erosions to the center (3) 2010 Foam, Plaster, Paint Curtain 2007 EPS Foam, Plaster Gauze Falling Clock 2011 Clock, Fiberglass, Paint, Joint compound Vent Anomaly 2006 Plaster, Aluminium, Paint
Biography wikipedia.com
Mail Slot 2008 Bronze, Plaster, Paint, Joint compound
Online Blog Mocoloco.com/art/archives
Ghosty 2011 Fiberglass, Fabric, Paint
Interview post-new.com
Sheet 2007 EPS, Plaster, Paint, Fabric, Rubber Hammock 2007 EPS Foam, Plaster Gauze Corner Knot 2008 EPS Plaster, Paint, Joint compound
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DANIEL ARSHAM Three Dimensions Walker Space | March 2012 Ravensbourne Greenwich Peninsula 6 Penrose Way London SE10 0EW