Daniel Arsham: Relics in the Landscape
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) exhibits the first display of work in the UK by highly acclaimed North American artist Daniel Arsham.
Four of Daniel Arsham’s bronze sculptures are currently on display in the iconic 18th-century Formal Garden at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The sculptures include the Bronze Extraterrestrial Bicycle (2022), Bronze Eroded Bunny (2022), and the three-metre tall Bronze Eroded Venus of Arles (2022) – Arsham’s retelling of the ancient marble statue of Aphrodite from the 1st century BCE.
Arsham’s sculptures appear as archaeological remnants of our time that he describes as ‘future relics’. His artistic practice is underpinned by the formative childhood experience of surviving Hurricane Andrew, which struck the Southern United States in 1992 and destroyed his family home and everything around it. Reflecting this, Arsham’s works are partially decayed and explore regeneration represented by real crystals that have been cast in bronze. The inclusion of the crystal forms alludes to alchemical change (the transformation of one substance into another), growth, and progression. A visit to Easter Island in 2011 where he encountered a palaeontology research expedition deepened Arsham’s interest in archaeology and continues to inform his practice.
The artist was recently given access to the original foundry molds of some of France’s most iconic classical sculptures displayed in the Louvre, including a 3.9-metre-tall female figure that was carved around 50 BCE. The statue was unearthed in the 15th century and for the last 500 or so years she has been thought of as Melpomene, the Greek muse of tragedy. From the mold of this sculpture Arsham created Unearthed Bronze Eroded Melpomene (2021), which in this landscape connects the past with the present. The ground in which YSP stands has been inhabited since at least the 11th century; here, Arsham’s sculptures resonate with the layers of human activity that have shaped and will continue to shape the environment.
