In these extraordinary times where the whole world suffers from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the collector and Phillips are donating a portion of funds from the sale to the Global Food Banking Network. Additionally, we are attaching a link to the organization and encouraging people to take a look at the work they do to provide hunger relief for those in need around the world: https://www.foodbanking.org/.


The present work exhibited at The House
by Daniel Arsham, Selfridges; London,
21 October 2019 - 5 January 2020
Photo: Lewis Ronald
New York-based multidisciplinary visual artist and architect Daniel Arsham has created a universe of modernity – one that traverses the boundaries of archaeology, decay and the passage of time. Pursuing an ongoing ‘inquiry into the fate of humanity’, which began with his iconic ‘Future Relics’ series, Arsham re-imagines everyday objects as artefacts unearthed in a futuristic geological dig, years of material damage from the elements captured in ghostly, intricately crystalised erosions.

With Grey Selenite Eroded Porsche, Arsham pays tribute to one of the most acclaimed sports cars of all time, the Porsche 911’s distinctive two-door, rear-engined silhouette which continues to be instantly recognisable even after more than three decades of modifications.


Another example of the present work exhibited at The House
by Daniel Arsham, Selfridges; London,
21 October 2019 - 5 January 2020
Photo: Lewis Ronald
Working with Porsche was indeed a childhood dream come true for Arsham:
‘You know, when I was a kid we all made drawings of certain things and I was often drawing sneakers and cars. I have these very old drawings of these Eighties 911s and I got connected with the brand through a friend of mine about a year and a half ago and I started thinking about posing this project to them’(the artist quoted in Zak Maoul, ‘This Dior-approved artist has taken over your corner shop’, GQ Magazine, 21 October 2019, online).

Designed with grey selenite, Arsham re-imagines the car as a witness to one of the most devastating kinds of natural disasters, its grey body abruptly gouged and delicately encrusted with Arsham’s signature crystal erosions. Like the victims of Pompeii, frozen in time under several feet of volcanic ash and debris when Mount Vesuvius erupted cataclysmically in A.D. 79, Grey Selenite Eroded Porsche is a reminder of when ‘darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a dark room’ (Pliny the Younger, The Letters of Pliny, trans. Betty Radice, Baltimore, 1969, pp. 170-72).


Daniel Arham's booth for Friedman Benda at Design Miami, 3-8 December 2019
Photo: Daniel Kukla
Enigmatic and ever-compelling, Arsham’s practice continues to explore dichotomies between reality and fiction, as well as destruction and creation in his apocalyptic world of the future. Grey Selenite Eroded Porsche was unveiled at ‘The House by Daniel Arsham’ installation at London’s Selfridges’ Corner Shop in December 2019. Reimagining a typical family home in the distant year of 3019, Arsham collaborated with household brands as diverse as Rimowa, Wedgwood, Heinz, and Dior Homme to create a dystopian, post-consumerist vision of domestic life.

In December 2019 Arsham also unveiled a futuristic kunstkammer (or cabinet of curiosities) in collaboration with design gallery Friedman Benda at Design Miami. Eschewing the traditional art fair booth, this translucent green box allowed visitors to circulate through the surreally furnished open-plan living area and study set-up.

Arsham has been honoured with solo exhibitions around the world, including most recently at the HOW Art Museum, Shanghai (2019). The past couple of years have also seen Arsham exhibit at venues including Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (2019), as well as Galerie Perrotin in New York (2018) and Tokyo (2018).