Ranging from Michelangelo’s Moses to the Vénus de Milo, each item was cast in hydrostone to produce a perfect to scale replica of the orig-inal sculpture, a process that shares formal qualities with historic wax casting. Arsham utilizes natural pigments that are similar to those used by classical sculptors, such as volcanic ash, blue calcite, selenite, quartz, and rose quartz. From that, individual erosions are chiseled into the surface of the hydrostone, a nod to the sculpting techniques of the Renaissance sculptors. Finally, Arsham applies his signature tactic of crystallization.Arsham is best known for visually transforming ready-made objects of the last half century into subtly eroding artifacts. Historically, he has focused on items that act as containers of memory: an original Apple computer, a Mickey Mouse phone, or Leica cameras. Arsham’s explora-tion into fictional archaeology dates back to nearly a decade ago when he took a research trip to Easter Island in the South Pacific. There, he observed an archeological expedition of a Moai statue. Around the base of the sculpture, archeologists uncovered tools left behind by a previ-ous archeological expedition from almost a century prior. Inspired by the dissolution of time between these distinct landscapes, Arsham began to explore the idea of archeology as a fictionalized account of the past, as well as a tool with which to collapse the past and the present.concept has become a common thread throughout his practice. Mak-ing use of classical and ancient objects, this new body of work experi-ments with the timelessness of certain symbols, furthering Arsham’s previous investigations into objecthood.For Paris, 3020, Arsham borrows display strategies from the modern museum, including elevated plinths, dimmed lights, and a series of nested exhibition spaces. By appropriating the visual language of the encyclopedic museum, Arsham makes deliberate reference to how museums have showcased and shaped object history, specifically as a vehicle that canonizes objects within a greater narrative of progress.In the first room of the exhibition, visitors encounter two large-scale iconic works of classical antiquity that depict women, specifically the goddess Aphrodite and Lucilla, the daughter of Roman Emperor Mar-cus Aurelius, which are respectively titled Vénus d’Arles and Tête de Lucille. Moving into the next room, Arsham continues his ongoing refer-ence to the great works of Western Art, with an eroded version of Michelangelo’s Moses on one end of the wall and the Vénus de Milo on the other. Both are flanked by a series of busts and life-size sculptures, including the bust of Caracalla wearing a breastplate and the Athéna Casquée, with both pairings highlighting how the ancient world con-flated royalty and deity. Flanking the sculptural works are a series of graphite process drawings by Arsham depicting eroded icons of clas-sical antiquity.These drawings both reference Arsham’s background in fine art as well as the art historical tradition of sketching, providing a fictionalized cre-ation myth for works that seemingly were never meant to exist. Dis-played together, these new works are transformed to compress time, at once referencing the past, informing the present, and reaching towards a crystallized future.

In August of 1992, Daniel Arsham was nearly killed in a hurricane in Miami. This being the 20th anniversary of that event, the experience has provided the initial inspiration for this exhibition titled STORM. Witnessing the dramatic and destructive possibilities of nature and its impact on human constructions, Arsham has created a new series of his architectural interventions that expand on his ability to make architecture perform the unexpected.
In much of the work in the show, Arsham takes the destructive energy he observed in the storm and reforms it to new and imaginative purposes, creating an uncanny context though aberrant perceptions : a clock moves on the wall creating folds that partially conceal it (“Sideways clock”) ; a wall as a sheet blows over a figure (“Hiding Figure”); a mirror disappears behind a moving wall (“Mirror Slit”).
After the hurricane, there was broken glass everywhere in Arsham’s home and all of the framed works on the walls were destroyed. A number of new self-portraits reform the broken glass back into sculptural objects. The moon features as an essential motif in this exhibition. In particular, in his paintings in gouache on mylar, where the moon is altered to contain rectilinear excavations. During the month that Arsham lived without electricity after the storm the moon appeared prominently in the sky at night and the memory of the storm is linked with the glowing of the moon at night.
Creating possibilities out of ruin, Arsham’s paintings and sculptures seem to float in time, giving a similar interpretation as in Nicolas Poussin and Hubert Robert landscapes.
Daniel Arsham presents with Jonah Bokaer their latest creation, “Curtain”, at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale on the occasion of New Settings of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès the 10, 12 & 13 November. www.theatredelacite.com
Visitors to Design Miami/ 2012 will be welcomed by “Drift”, a floating environment comprised of massive inflatable tubes, resembling a topographical landscape in suspension: an ascending mountain above and an excavated cavern below. “Drift” has been conceived by Snarkitecture, Daniel Arsham’s collaborative architectural practice with Alex Mustonen. Daniel Arsham has also been selected in the Video section of Art Basel Miami Beach 2012