Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to present #recollections, the first solo exhibition in London, from 15 October to 4 December, of young New York-based artist, Daniel Arsham. Known for his multi-disciplinary work comprising painting, sculpture, installation, film and performance, Arsham collaborated with Merce Cunningham for the last four years of Cunningham’s life, following in the footsteps of Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman. A highlight of the opening was the Performance by Arsham and Jonah Bokaer, previewing the artists’ collaboration to be performed at the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2013.
Imagining himself as an archaeologist of the future looking back into the past, Arsham has brought together a series of cast objects within the gallery, presenting them as if fossilised relics from a bygone era or an archaeological dig. Displayed on custom-made shelves by Arsham’s architectural firm Snarkitecture, the collection encompasses an array of cameras, microphones and projectors, fabricated using reformed materials such as volcanic ash, crystal and crushed steel. Significantly, their once communicative function has now been rendered defunct as if eroded by the passing of time. With an arm shielding its face, a glass figure cast from the artist’s body overlooks the assortment of relics, alluding to the petrified remains of a Pompeian figure. To complete the installation, a series of coins, each painted in intricate detail on a stark black background, are hung as if classified in a taxonomical display.
Daniel Arsham’s recent solo exhibitions include Louis Vuitton, School of the Arts Singapore, part of Singapore Biennale 2013, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; Galerie Perrotin, Paris; Festival d’Avignon; OhWow, LA; MoCA Miami and Miami Art Museum. Group exhibitions include Hammer Museum; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Musée de Valence; Richmond Center for Visual Arts, the New Museum, New York, and currently on view Homebodies at MOCA Chicago. In September 2013 Arsham collaborated with Pharrell Williams to make a work for the opening of The Standard East Village, New York.
Jonah Bokaer (b 1981) international choreographer and dancer, was described by Roslyn Sulcas in the New York Times as ‘contemporary dance’s renaissance man.’ Bokaer trained in dance at Cornell University and subsequently graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts as a North Carolina Academic Scholar. Recruited for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the unprecedented age of 18, he continued to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to choreography, addressing the human body in relation to technology. He has been the recipient of a large number of international art and dance awards.
