Artist Daniel Arsham continually blurs the past and present in his art, whether through decaying sculptures of old guitar and microphone models or through films, like Future Relic 02, that re-contextualize the history and discovery of the film camera. Future Relic 02 stars James Franco, who's just one of the many high-profile people Arsham has collaborated with. Last year, he worked on multiple keyboard sculptures with Pharrell, which were actually replicas of the Casio MT-500—the first instrument Pharrell learned to make music with. And earlier this year, Arsham created a full-body cast of Pharrell for the "GIRL" exhibition at Galerie Perrotin in Paris. Many also know Arsham as half of experimental art/architecture duo Snarkitecture, who have done collaborations with KITH, Chromeo, En Noir, and more.
One of Arsham's newest pieces is quite a trip. Bound Figure, which is now on display at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London, is the only piece in an exhibition titled "Special Project," which is on view until January 7, 2015. Made of fiberglass, paint, joint compound, fabric, and shoes, the piece was built and sculpted into the wall, creating an illusion that's almost as unbelievable in real life as it is in photos. In a recent interview with Artsy, Arsham expands on the process involved in creating a figure who "grabs the wall from either side":
When I’m creating these pieces, in order to get the image of them, I drape fabric over a mannequin to see what the folds and the gravity will look like. And oftentimes I’m playing with the audience’s perception of what gravity should do. So if you imagine you’re standing [and] a sheet is draped over you, the gravity is going to look a particular way. Oftentimes when I make these, I drape them over mannequins that are facing up, towards the ceiling. So when I place them on the wall, there’s something strange about them, there’s something a little bit uncanny about them...90% of the figures are constructed in the studio, and the only part that’s made on-site in the gallery is the joint between the work and the architecture. And the goal in the end, the thing that is important in order to achieve [this effect], is a seamless transition, so that when you look at this work, you shouldn’t know where the work ends and where the architecture begins.
We took photos of the work in detail above, which are accompanied by pieces in the gallery from the Future Relic series.
