In short
Daniel Arsham discusses his “Book of HOV” project—creating a bronze slipcover for a Jay-Z career book—and how his art blurs time like “fictional archaeology.”
Guest backgrounds
Daniel Arsham is a visual artist working in his Queens, New York studio; he collaborated with Jay-Z’s team via Assouline/Asseline for a Brooklyn Public Library exhibition and its book adaptation.
Key claims
his work aims to pull people out of the present; music can act like a “time travel device”; bronze patina is forced oxidation to mimic centuries-old artifacts.
Notable examples
the slipcover was made by scanning Jay-Z’s hands, 3D printing the form, and casting it; the cover is designed to feel ancient, “like it’s been here for thousands of years.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOCreating the Bronze Slipcover for the Book of HOV
0:38 to 1:48
Daniel shares the process of creating a sculpture for Jay-Z's Book of HOV.
“We're inside of my studio in Queens, New York.”
The Art of Historicizing Through Sculpture
1:48 to 2:31
Explore how Daniel's sculptures convey stories and mark moments in time.
“I'm trying to use materials that also tell a story.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:03I think so much of my work is about bringing people outside of this particular moment in time. The objects sometimes look like they're from the past, sometimes they look like they're from the future. And it's really just creating this kind of confusion in time where you don't quite know where you are. Music has this way of bringing you back to a particular moment. It almost is like this time travel device that can bring you back into the feeling of that era.
0:37Daniel Arsham:My name is Daniel Arsham. I am a visual artist. We're inside of my studio in Queens, New York. I'm creating a bronze slipcover for the Book of Hove, which is a book of Jay-Z's career, which is being published by Asseline. The project with Jay, somebody from his team reached out and basically asked if I would consider making a sculpture for this huge exhibition that was happening of his career at the Brooklyn Public Library. And the trick was to basically do it without him knowing that we were doing it. And so we ended up scanning his hands. That was then 3D printed out, and the work was cast from that.
1:20So after the exhibition happened, Jay's team reached back out and said that they were working to create the experience of the exhibition in a book form.
1:28Daniel Arsham:To work with an artist that's so much part of our culture, to work on this exhibition, which was celebrating his life and his contribution to so many aspects of our current culture. There's pieces that I make that feel like they mark like a particular moment in time, and this really was one of them. In my work, because I'm trying to create these sort of fictional archaeological works, I'm trying to use materials that also tell a story. The patina on the works is basically a forced oxidation. So if you cast something in bronze and you left it outside for 100 years, eventually it would gain this type of patina.
2:12Historicizing this gesture into a permanent sculpture that looks like it's been around for so long is a very similar gesture to the creation of the cover of the book, which has this feeling like it's been here for a long time. Like the cover or the book has existed for thousands of years.
From the publisher
In this episode of Beyond the Cover, Daniel Arsham takes us beyond the pages of The Book of HOV Special Limited Edition, an exclusive collaboration between the celebrated visual artist and Assouline that extends the world of Jay-Z into an object of enduring significance. Arsham, who created the iconic "HOV Hands" sculpture for the Brooklyn Public Library exhibition, brings that same vision to one of the most celebrated books in Assouline's collection.
For more inspiration, head to assouline.com, where culture meets luxury.
To learn more about The Book of HOV Special Limited Edition visit assouline.com/the-book-of-hov-a-tribute-to-jay-z-ultimate
