Eroding and Reforming

Would you find it surprising to learn that a digital artist has a deep concern with materials? Arsham is a prolific creator of physical objects, pushing them into the future, where every element of the construction is considered. This may seem obvious for a physical piece like the Porsche that was on exhibit at Mandala Club, but less so for lines of code, and yet these two works feel very tactile, from the changing light, to the falling snow, or of the dust ejected from the car’s tires, with the sounds of the shifting gravel providing backing rhythm to the melody of the Ferrari’s engine roar.

Thematically, Arsham invests elements of structural impermanence into his creations, echoes of a childhood that saw his family home destroyed by a hurricane, but are we watching a slow erosion, or an iterative formation? In the Bust of Rome, the shattered head does fall to the ground, and the GT decomposes, but in both cases the digital medium allows both pieces to reform, falling apart, growing together, and never explicitly revealing where they are on the path from life to lifelessness, from pixels to dust. The movement in both works is integral to the storytelling, as the moving car and gentle snowfall (which will soon give way to spring) provide a recognised scale and sense of timing, while reminding us that we are on a journey together.

Arsham has adapted his work to the digital space with a realization that the medium affords a different creative freedom, from visual design,  to emotional impact, collector engagement, and provenance. These are all cast together with links to his physical body of works. This road is unknown but this freedom lives in the convergence of the familiar, the fantastical, and our art history.
The medium is the message yes, but is now also the mechanism, with the computer providing the raw materials. Welcome to the future.