Alexis Dahan

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

Our cities are growing and their evolution naturally discards old forms. Cobblestone roads are being covered with asphalt, Public Payphones are replaced with WiFi stations, Fire Alarms are disconnected, cast iron fire hydrants are rusting, entire building blocks are wiped out and replaced with new ones. At any given time, one can wonder the streets of a city and notice that some of these past urban phenomenon are still visible, standing in quiet decay embodying the passing of time like the different strata of an eroding mountain. My work is an examination of the different forms taken by the Urban Erosion. I create public interventions directly on the street by disrupting existing relations we have with common urban phenomenon such as payphones, fire hydrant, pot-holes, fire alarms, news racks, hot dog carts or cobblestone roads. I also maintain a studio practice where I create sculptures that use the manufactured urban object as raw material to give it a new form and a new purpose. Finally I use charcoal drawing to document the variety of paved roads that I encounter when I travel.

Artwork