Frozen Throne

Daria Arbuzova uses transparent materials — glass, plastic, and now ice — to explore the social and psychological aspects of modern life, which teeters on the border between the digital and the material. Her sculpture, created especially for the Eternity Formulae project, is inspired by an add-on to the computer game, Warcraft Ill, also called The Frozen Throne, and the artist interprets the throne itself as a symbol of omnipotence. Set within a refrigeration unit, the sculpture references Zholtovsky's industrial refrigerator. We see how much human effort, electricity, heat, and noise are required in order to preserve the ice sculpture in its original form, inspiring reflection on humanity's inherent desire to hold on to and preserve the present. Located across the hall from Zholtovsky's chair, the ice throne hints at a parallel between the architect, who creates the appearance and landscape of our everyday life, and the despot, who decides destinies—be it a political ruler or a developer of a virtual world. Inside the angular throne, roughly cut from a piece of ice, there is a computer chair made of a material resembling bone. It has as many small details and decorative excesses as the original design for the industrial refrigerator, and its owner is located somewhere at the crossroads of worlds: he is a gamer immersed in play, or a character in the game, or even its developer, or an architect who, in the twenty-first century, has swapped his office space for a laptop and a swivel chair.