Cory Arcangel ✎~V.2023.009~2x1.2~3020, 2023

The iconography of sportswear has permeated Cory Arcangel’s oeuvre for 15 years as a reflection on the global circulation of commodities and related imagery. In a new body of wall-mounted metal works known as Alus (2022–23), a robotic laser cutting machine is used to cut abstract shapes from thin plates of aluminium. Five of these works bearing renderings of the three Adidas stripes were featured in the artist’s solo exhibition at the Kunstverein in Hamburg in 2022, establishing the significance of the artist's use of metal plates.

The shapes are derived from iPhone photographs of tracksuits laid on the floor of the artist’s studio. By cropping and enlarging details of these images, Arcangel generates a sequence of lines, curves, and lettering that renders the motifs of the leisurewear brands unfamiliar, transforming the imagery of fast fashion into the visual realm of painting. ‘These are abstract paintings using contemporary production techniques,’ explains the artist. A result of Arcangel’s experimentation with new techniques and materials, the Alus embody the artist’s recent thinking about energy, which he sees as ‘the foundation of our world.’ Moving from New York to Stavanger in 2015, Arcangel found himself living in the onshore epicentre of Norway’s booming oil and gas industry. Due to the availability of cheap energy, Scandinavia has also become a site of high-intensity aluminium production. What Arcangel describes as the ‘all-pervasive and all-encompassing’ nature of these industries informed his decision to start making works using local materials and fabrication methods.