While Pokémon Arceus is revealing all new things about the franchise’s past, artist Daniel Arsham’s next collaboration with The Pokémon Company is all about a ruined, fossilized future.
Building on the larger themes of his previous two Pokémon projects, “Relics of Kanto Through Time” and “Time Dilation,” Arsham’s upcoming “A Ripple in Time” exhibition opening in Tokyo will feature a variety of Pokémon works of art meant to evoke the passage of time. In addition to paintings, drawings, and Arsham’s signature Pokémon statues inspired by architecture and the concept of fictional archaeology, “A Ripple in Time” will also feature an “animated work” produced by Arsham and Kunihiko Yuyama, former general director of the Pokémon anime who now acts as creative supervisor. According to a press release about the exhibition, this project came to be “at the strong request of Arsham himself,” who worked alongside Yuyama to map out elements of the animated art piece ranging from storyboarding to finishing.
The short teaser video of “A Ripple in Time” pits Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu against Arsham and his Cubone in a battle presumably set some time in the not-too-distant past given the outfits everyone’s wearing and Misty’s Togepi still being a Togepi. When the battling Pokémon’s combined attacks accidentally slam into an onlooking Celebi — legendary Pokémon known for its time-traveling abilities — the resulting explosion leads to Ash being transported to a strange, apocalyptic future filled with art very much like the real Arsham’s.
One of five separate exhibitions that make up the larger “A Ripple in Time” project, the animated work will debut at Nanzuka Underground on February 10.
