DS (walled, figure 3)

Sculpture. Approximately 7m (h) x 8m x 18m. Chain link wire fence, steel fence structure, cement. 2013
The third variation on the DS sculpture form based on fence systems. The fences are interwoven and threaded through each other at graphic angles, the chain link forming a mesh over its surroundings. In this instance the structure is bordered and contained by a cement frame reminiscent of the foundation of a house. The walls suggest ruins of a former urban environment in an interrupted state of dilapidation and transformation, or else a compromised construction process mutating and injecting itself into the established, institutional location.
This variation installed at the University of Pennsylvania's McHarg Plaza.

Entitled DS (walled, Figure 3) 2013, the work makes reference to the economic and structural uncertainties, prevalent in the architectural cityscape of Philadelphia. The structures refer to both construction and collapse, and they invite the viewer in close to relate to the intersecting, opening and closing forms. This reflects a reality that local people confront in their everyday lives: the social and economic vulnerabilities provoked by long-term policies.
Asdam’s intervention, closed by the wall, but sculptural from a distance becomes an installation close up that you have to move around and into with your body. Fabricated from ordinary, familiar building materials, it plays on both beauty and the grotesque, an intriguing construction and a subtle, deadly architectural monstrosity.