On the second floor, a blue glow emanates from an illuminated room. Relics from our recent past and present are cast in resin, backlit and arranged as if they were collected from an archaeological dig. They are in effect fossilized pieces of our present. To see them as artifacts is to step outside of our own time, to be given an opportunity to look at common objects as important symbols of what mattered to us most.

Some pieces also remind us that the stories we take for granted as simply "popular" today are in fact cultural records that will long outlive us. Ashram's collaboration with Pokémon is a great example of this. These characters are given weight and significance in two ways, by their physical weight, size, and material reality, and also by their proximity to the remixed antiquity which surrounds them. It's strangely not jarring in the least to look from a bust of Athena to a bronze cast Ash and Pikachu. These pop culture references pin the work to our time, while forcing the viewer into the future, to look back at it with binoculars.

I first encountered Arsham's work via sculpture and installation art, so to see his paintings was a unique thrill for me. Circumstances of this past year of isolation created space for him to explore his artistic roots and these large scale paintings add to the transportive effect of the entire gallery. Pieces from the gallery itself feature in these dreamscapes and weave the third dimension into two.

Time Dilation by Daniel Arsham runs until February 20th, 2021, and you can make an appointment to view it yourself. I highly recommend you do. It was the first actual exhibition I've attended since the start of Covid, and what a wonderful way to reenter the world of physical art. It felt like being given access to some ancient tomb, it's treasures still intact, and full of stories of our time.