Daniel Arsham plunks an extra-large bronze padlock on the desk at his Lengthy Island Metropolis, Queens, studio. The piece appears to be like worn and eroded, like some artifact dug up from the neighborhoods postindustrial grounds, its patina a refined blue. And never simply any blue. Created for Tiffany & Co., the work is the artist’s limited–edition sculpture for his newest collaboration with the posh model. Arsham lifts the shackle and opens the field to disclose a stunning bangle: his tackle Tiffany’s new Lock bracelet.

Reflecting over Zoom, Arsham frames the padlock as a part of a fictional archaeology. “It’s this concept of taking one thing from the current and pushing it into the longer term artificially,” he notes. “There’s a confusion that occurs while you’re one thing that’s from the period by which you reside, but it surely’s aged, like one thing that you just would possibly see in a museum.”

Over the course of his celebrated profession, the artist has utilized this remedy to all the pieces from cameras to basketballs to telephones, realizing their immediately recognizable types in plaster, volcanic ash, and different supplies that can provide the impression of decay. In 2013, Arsham (who’s represented by Perrotin gallery) realized a pile of seemingly eroded padlocks in crystal, shattered glass, and hydrostone.