Artist partners with Pokémon and Uniqlo on items exclusive to China

Daniel Arsham has recently launched Archive Editions, a platform dedicated to selling limited edition artworks and collectables, exclusively in China

Spotted: Daniel Arsham is a contemporary American visual artist best known for work that blends art with architecture and fashion, for dystopian themes and for artistic collaborations with popular culture icons. The artist has recently launched Archive Editions, a platform dedicated to selling limited edition artworks and collectables, exclusively in China.

Arsham is the first artist to be granted access to the Pokémon archive, and Archive Editions’ first project was a collaborative piece with Pokémon called Eroded Pikachu. This features a sculpture of Pikachu modelled as though it were uncovered by archaeologists. Arsham describes it as “fictional archaeology” and “a monument of Kanto [a region of the Pokémon world] uncovered through the passage of time”.

The small sculpture is created out of white cast resin and aluminium oxide and is a scaled-down version of larger bronze works made by Arsham. The sculpture forms part of a wider Pokémon collaborative project, titled ’Relics of Kanto Through Time’. This collection will include prints, additional sculptures, and a UNIQLO UT collection of clothes, featuring monotone graphics of “eroded” Pokémon characters such as Pikachu, Mewtwo and Jigglypuff. 

In an Instagram post, Arsham described the intention of the project as, “to not only bring the universe of Pokémon and the characters into my work, but to have my work infiltrate the Pokémon universe, as well.” The Eroded Pickachu is available exclusively through the Archive Editions WeChat Mini-program. 

At Springwise, we have often noted the different ways in which artists have collaborated with other sectors to produce unique works and innovative approaches to a range of issues. These approaches have included a collaboration between acclaimed artists, art foundations and skateboard manufacturers to address issues of social equality, and a gallery that reimagines the uses of plastic.

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