Artistic Race & the Art of Polishing vol. 3 – New School of (Avant-Garde) Artistic Directorship

Daniel Arsham x Porsche

For this reason, the brand has implemented projects with Daniel Arsham and Teddy Santis (the latter is discussed in the second part of this series). They are both New Yorkers (just as Ronnie Fieg, by the way). The 911 model is like a Coca-Cola bottle – its shape recognisable even from a long distance. Although its form is evolving and its size growing, the characteristic elements and the overall body undergo only a soft transformation. The original shape, after over half a century and eight successive generations launched, remains distinguishable. This makes the car into a sports car archetype and a reference point in the history of design, and thus – an object with an exceptional status and constantly growing potential as a collectible.

Dream of Porsche

A dream of Porsche, like that of Rolex, is quite common among boys and young men. Some of them make this dream come true. Interestingly, references to the youthhood have become a canvass for both above-mentioned designers, who have customised old 911s. Arsham has created a variation on a rally car with much attention to detail, which has resulted in a retrofuturistic vehicle. Characteristic decals on the car body, upholstery colours corresponding with the palette the American is known for and modified nuances make this specimen of 1986 Porsche 930A Turbo into an example of artistic tuning. There are also nostalgic references to the famous rainbow Apple paint scheme using the Motter Tektura font that appeared for one season, in 1980, on the racing version of Porsche. Because the Cupertino-seated company had its episode of motorsports – in 1980 Steve Jobs’ acquaintance, Bob Garretson, asked the Apple co-founder to sponsor his team. The cooperation did not last long, merely one season, but these several races (including at Le Mans or Sebring) helped to make Apple Computers (the company name back then) much more recognisable.

The context is all the more interesting because not just layers of paint are applied here, but also those of meanings and references. The strategy is as much artistic as marketing one, where products have cultural elements sewn in, put on or encoded.
Artists draw on the resources of the brands themselves, bringing them into the circuit of culture. A testament to it might be another project by Arsham and Porsche. In this case, the subject was not an oldtimer, but the current 911 model. And customisation did not arise from a child’s fascinations, but from the artist’s long-term creative explorations.

Artistic Erosion

The New Yorker is known for his fascination with the flow of time and its inevitable impact on the reality. He plays an archaeologist concocting artefacts and subjecting objects to a controlled erosion, or actually styling them accordingly. He shows us how contemporary items might look in the distant future. A dystopian vision, but filtered, softened, made aesthetic. Therefore, Arsham’s version of Porsche 911, that could have been admired for instance at the Selfridges department store, has “damaged” sections elaborately blended in which add it character rather than evoke vanitative associations. Against the matte white paintwork these eroded sections look like small craters. The unique version of the Eroded Porsche has travelled around the world, including a visit to Tokyo, and it is to be finally parked at the brand’s museum in Stuttgart, which in itself provides an interesting example of how a brand’s cultural position can be consolidated. Its building, on the other hand, designed by the Austrian studio Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, fits into the trend of expressive architecture.

The real car was accompanied by a 1/3 scale model named Ash & Pyrite Eroded Porsche made of volcanic dust mixed with pyrite – probably the most suggestive emanation of apocalyptic styling. In this case, it is difficult to guess what will remain of this work when the dust of excitement drops. Will time be more benevolent for it than the artist himself for his works? It is a bit nostalgic, but also mawkish like fake ruins of the Romantic period. As of now, the market – including the art market – favours it much. At the auction organised by a Phillips branch at K11 Musea in Hong Kong the object was sold for about PLN 785 thousand. Talking about auctions, luxury brands in particular are more and more frequent guests at auction houses, not so much as partners but as auction heroes, in the endless process of building their position as cultural phenomena and institutions. An example is here for instance the recent sale of collections, props and memorabilia from Prada’s Fall/Winter Fashion Show 2020, entitled Tools of Memory. Apart from garments, there were also elements of set design from the said premiere, the work of the OMA architecture studio. The Dutch studio, founded by Rem Koolhaas, is already an almost full-time co-creator of the brand image when it comes to space, and the very cooperation is an interesting example of a strategy where architecture forms an integral part of communication. Much like Porsche, Mercedes-Benz put up for auction a replica in the same scale and, like Prada at Sotheby’s, also donated the income to charity.

The ageing procedure counts among the artist’s favourite means of expression. The damaged sections often feature also crystal elements resembling internal skeletons or the structure of things hidden under the surface. The degree of erosion varies, but playing a time travelling archaeologist remains constant. At the already mentioned London department store the American was granted quite a space where items subjected to his original procedure – such as a basketball backboard, BMX, fridge or suitcase – could be admired or purchased. Arsham signed here also Heinz Beans cans (not eroded, luckily); they were the cheapest products offered. Walking about this temporarily arranged space named The House, visitors could also come across clothes created by Arsham in cooperation with Samuel Ross’ A-COLD-WALL* or Ambush, Byredo creams, Rimowa suitcases or Dior clothes and accessories. It is worth noting because Arsham is currently one of those artists with whom brands eagerly team up to create limited edition products, often as an extension of his already mentioned “Future Relics” project, which he has been working on for many years. Arsham consistently – or, according to some, ad nauseam – erodes both iconic and prosaic objects, or rather correspondingly styles their casts made of a mixture of gypsum and cement as well as quartz crystals.

The pop up boutique itself is another example of experimental marketing, used very often by noble department stores in the era of experience design. Selfridges is not an exception in this field – the trend was quite extensive before the pandemic (and will probably return with even more intensity), which could be observed from Paris, through Milan, all the way to New York, that is from Galeries Lafayette, through La Rinascente, to Bergdorf Goodman.

Retrofuture Pop Art

Our feelings towards Arsham’s work might be ambivalent, like towards that of Virgil Abloh. Yes, he balances on the verge of banality and repetitiveness, juggling with a limited palette of motifs. Still, his works reflect our times pretty well, even if solutions used by him are often not too sophisticated. Another detail worth remembering is the Snarkitecture studio he runs together with Alex Mustonen, which has showed some really remarkable store space designs. Special attention should be paid here to projects for the brands KITH, COS or Valextra, but also to 3110NZ by LDH Kitchen opened this year. The concept, situated in a Tokyo district, is the combination of the Nanzuka gallery, a leader of the local artistic scene, and an elegant sushi bar. During the day, art is exhibited here (Nanzuka represents for instance Hajime Sorayama, Jonathan Chapline, Jean Jullien or Agnieszka Brzeżańska), and in the evenings it serves as the set for meals consumed. The place itself looks like a polished and minimalistic Flintstones’ house. The studio breaking the conventions of time and space.

Arsham is much sought after nowadays, because he amalgamates the most popular contemporary aesthetic codes and manipulates fashionable designs. He combines street art and classic avant-garde solutions, from Dadaism, through surrealism, all the way to pop art and conceptualism. He is like a creative agency in the artistic world – a form the most valued currently. Exhibited at prestigious galleries and boutiques, recently he has become the creative director of the NBA club Cleveland Cavaliers. This last news shows not only links between sports and fashion, art or general mass culture. It presents the power of image and experience combined, the need to blend categories and motifs at a time when the old rules are reaching their limits. Arsham has said that he wants to turn the Cavaliers into a global brand with the same potential as the New York Yankees. He has also added that if Andy Warhol had lived, he would have probably held the same position with the New York Knicks. It seems very likely. Perhaps then the Knicks would have even started winning.

• Part 1.: ARTISTIC RACE & THE ART OF POLISHING VOL. 1 Artistic Car Performance
• Part 2.: ARTISTIC RACE & THE ART OF POLISHING VOL. 2 New York School of (Cultural) Tuning