DANIEL ARSHAM ON HIS FORAY INTO FASHION: OBJECTS IV LIFE – MACHINE-A

Mon 25 Jul

What happens when a renowned visual artist extends his talent to create a contemporary fashion brand? Objects IV Life is the result of the latest stage in the creative evolution of the award-winning artist and sculptor Daniel Arsham. An innovative collaboration between the New York resident and Stefano Martinetto’s Tomorrow Ltd, this fresh new label is “part-atelier, part-laboratory” and radically reimagines our relationship with clothing. The MACHINE-A team sat down with Daniel Arsham to find out more. Read on to get a feel for the world of Objects IV Life.

A natural evolution…

Just a glance at Daniel Arsham’s body of artwork will show you that, as an artist, he has long straddled the lines between art, architecture and performance. In designing his first clothing line, he further blurs those lines between object and audience. Each piece intends to “get the audience to think about clothing in a different way, trying to get them to think about it in a more sculptural way.”

The name of the label, Objects IV Life, is very much an extension of his existing artistic thought processes. “A lot of my work is in sculpture; I’ve always thought about these sculptural works like an object, something physical,” he says.

As for Objects being a fashion brand – for Arsham, the focus was on the wearer’s experience. “[It’s] really just about the way that clothing makes you feel. Look at footwear and sneakers in junior high school and in high school; they kind of create an ambience around you, and there’s a collective understanding that you might build with people based on a shared interest in things. That sense felt very familiar to me as an artist.”