arsham studio 'finds' bronze basketball seemingly restored from the future

as the 2019/2020 NBA season approaches, new york based arsham studio is set to drop its newest bronze casted sculpture edition called BRONZE ERODED BASKETBALL on october 18th at 12pm EST. ‘inspired by the global reach of basketball,’ daniel arsham writes on instagram, ‘this work falls into my fictional archaeology series in a new process using the antiquity that bronze is associated with.’ previously exhibited at galerie perrotin in hong kong, arsham also took inspiration from the eruption of mount vesuvius near pompeii, and re-contextualized modern objects such as cameras, cars and sneakers as remnants of an obsolete civilization.

all images courtesy of daniel arsham

hand finished with a custom torch scored patina, arsham’s BRONZE ERODED BASKETBALL is an amalgamation of past, present, and future. the torched patina disrupts the material properties of the bronze exposing rainbow light refractions in the metal to give the illusion as though the ball had endured a natural disaster of some sort.

produced in a limited edition of 99, the near 20 pound basketball is encased in a 16 pound custom resin-cast ‘arsham studio’ crate, containing embossed care labels and clear-cast silicone footings to protect the edition. the clear crate, which doubles as a display case, is designed to catch light in contrast to the solidity of the bronze. each edition also comes complete with a pair of ‘arsham studio’ art gloves that should be worn at all times when handling the work. 

project info:

cost: $9,500 USD

release date: october 18th 2019, 12pm EST

artist: daniel arsham

design studio: arsham studio

total weight: ~17.05 kg / ~35lb