Back To The Future: Dior Taps Daniel Arsham For A Series Of Limited Edition Art Objects
From street artist KAWS to underground illustrator Raymond Pettibon, Kim Jones’ tenure at Dior has been punctuated by collaborations with contemporary creatives (and mavericks), and this season makes no exception. Spring/Summer 2020’s artist of choice is Daniel Arsham, who partnered with Jones to design not only the set of last June’s menswear show, but also a much-anticipated capsule of ready-to-wear and accessories. Hot on the heels of the latter’s launch just weeks ago, Dior has unveiled yet another joint effort from the power duo: a line of limited edition objets d’art.
Straddling the worlds of art, architecture, and performance, Arsham is perhaps best known for his concept of “fictional archaeology”, wherein everyday items are reimagined to look as they might if unearthed thousands of years down the line. The artist weaves this philosophy into the new collection as an extension of his Future Relics series, simultaneously celebrating the maison’s storied heritage while imagining a distant, dystopian future.
Objects drawn from both house archives and Christian Dior’s personal possessions are recreated as hydrostone sculptures, which are then eroded and encrusted with quartz crystals to resemble historical artefacts. These include a telephone and a clock from Monsieur Dior’s house in the south of France, a basketball, a set of four letters spelling out the Dior name, and a book inspired by the 1951 Je Suis Couturier, a collection of observations and musings penned by the maison’s founding father.
Each numbered piece has been handcrafted at Arsham’s studio in New York, and comes in a custom wooden crate, accompanied by a certificate of authentication, a pair of immaculately white gloves, and a specially-made sand hourglass, coloured as per the décor of the Spring/Summer 2020 show.
The Dior Future Relics collection is available in stores now
