Space And Time Ep (Dan Graham Authorized Artwork Limited Edition)

ASCENSION ON WAX (AoW) is a new record label combining House Music and Art. 

For the label’s debut, they have collaborated with the late legendary conceptual artist Dan Graham (1944-2022) alongside Irish house music producer Glenn Davis for a rare and limited edition vinyl release. The Space and Time EP has subtle jazz references throughout the music with a gatefold design featuring Dan Graham’s Eleven Sugar Cubes artwork on it with a gorgeous green transparent vinyl inside. 

One of the last projects he collaborated on, Dan Graham was no stranger to the fusion of Music and Art and was instrumental in encouraging AoW to pursue it. Alongside his own artwork, he spent a career writing music and art reviews, compiled and distributed to friends 21 volumes of his infamous Dan Graham’s Greatest Hits cd’s, and in 1984 made the no-wave art film Rock My Religion with a soundtrack by Sonic Youth and Glenn Branca. 

The early 1980’s saw a short-lived explosion of creativity in the underground New York City night life scene. An exciting and hip new culture of music, art and fashion had become interconnected, where young, up-and-comings artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Madonna would hang out in the same places. The Mudd Club was at the center of this scene hosting art exhibitions, live concerts and dj sets where selectors would play their favorite dance floor weapons on vinyl. This was an era where Hip-Hop and No-Wave were forming in New York. Further up on the east coast in Chicago, Frankie Knuckles was championing another new genre, House Music. 

AoW were inspired by this history and are bringing house music and art together in the 21st century. With only 150 copies available to be sold, this is a rare opportunity to own an authorized Dan Graham limited edition artwork release. The non limited edition of Glenn Davis’s Space And Time EP released by AoW earlier this year has a number of highly respected dj’s talking about the fantastic music from Honey Dijon to Tim Findley (Groove Armada) and beyond.

Dan Graham’s Eleven Sugar Cubes was originally published in Art in America Magazine in 1970 and features two collages of twelve photographs taken on the banks of the polluted Jersey City bay. The symbolic sugar cubes, laced with detergent rather than LSD, were then photographed. The strips of photographs according to Graham resembled “a psychedelic comic strip” and were taken during a period he has been focusing on magazine-based artworks. Eleven Sugar Cubes is available for the first time as an authorized artwork limited edition vinyl release.

Individually numbered by hand, 150 of the edition are available to be sold and are aimed at art and music enthusiasts who want a beautiful, rare and exclusive limited edition to cherish as part of their collection. There is a long history of artists working with the 12” record sleeve format which includes Andy Warhol, Damian Hirst and Dan Graham who designed the 1987 album titled Sister by no-wave band Sonic Youth. For the Dan Graham limited edition release design, colours were chosen by AoW, Dan and Mieko Graham from a book of 19th century french poetry and romantic literature front covers, the green one chosen for inspiration being by Joseph Delormes. The green pallet resonates perfectly with Dan Graham’s tonal photography.