The Future Was Then: Monumental Installation by Daniel Arsham

“The Future Was Then,” is a monumental installation created by Daniel Arsham specifically for the museum’s Pamela Elaine Poetter Gallery for deFINE ART 2016. These select sculptural works and this installation explore the interaction between mankind and architecture, and draw particular attention to man’s capacity for creating, destroying and repurposing manmade and natural materials both historically and contemporaneously.

Central to the exhibition is Arsham’s “Wall Excavation” installation, a large-scale, architecturally responsive installation in which the artist has carved into a repeated series of faux-concrete walls. As visitors engage directly with their surroundings and walk among the immersive excavation, they are met with sculpted openings in which jagged edges morph from abstract forms into the silhouette of a human figure. This transformative experience evokes notions of progress in relation to mankind’s ability to manipulate his surroundings.