daniel arsham turns miami’s locust projects into a future excavation site

daniel arsham turns miami’s locust projects into a future excavation site
all images courtesy of locust projects
photo by zach balber with ginger photography

during art basel miami beach 2014, visitors to the exhibition space at locust projects are transported into an excavation site filled with thousands of calcified artifacts. these seemingly relic-like casts of 20th century media devices comprise ‘welcome to the future’, a major site-specific installation by american artist daniel arsham.

mounds of boom boxes, electric guitars, SLR cameras, blackberries, game controllers, VHS tapes, walkmans, film projectors, and portable televisions — rendered in crystal, volcanic ash, and other minerals — fill a 25-foot-wide trench in the gallery’s floor, obscuring the otherwise traditional notions of past, present, and future. these artifacts, a collection of arsham’s new and old sculptures, are arranged in a monochromatic gradient — objects on the perimeter are black, and get lighter towards the center.

thousands of calcified artifacts fill a 25-foot-wide trench in the gallery’s floor

each object individually is an sculptural study on its own, but when amassed in a giant pile, the overall effect is eerie, with a post-apocalyptic quality. the trench presents a sea of items used throughout the recent past and present day as archeology, preserved like petrified wood or the figures of pompeii. while each of arsham’s sculptural works are typically regarded as individual art objects, the flooded void intends to destabilize the viewer with a grand gesture that rewrites the narratives of production, history, and discovery.

objects on the perimeter are black, and get lighter towards the center

a sea of seemingly relic-like casts of 20th century media devices comprise ‘welcome to the future’

 mounds of boom boxes, electric guitars, SLR cameras, blackberries, game controllers and VHS tapes infill the hole

each sculpture is rendered in crystal, volcanic ash, and other minerals

the relics obscure the otherwise traditional notions of past, present, and future