daniel arsham turns barley grains into moving sculpture for the balvenie at frieze seoul

daniel arsham TIME-WORNs BRONZE sculpture for the balvenie

A circular bed of grain welcomes designboom to the floor of Space S50 in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Four performers move within the material, gathering, spreading, and reshaping the loose barley using sweeping, continuous gestures. Choreographed by Sukyung Yoo to a soundscape recorded inside The Balvenie distillery, the eight-part performance translates the manual labor of turning grain on a traditional malting floor into kinetic art. Conceptualised by artist Daniel Arsham, the live performance marks the debut of The 1931 Collection, created by the Speyside whiskey maker and unveiled during Frieze Seoul 2026.

daniel arsham’s circular bed of barley grains becomes a canvas for movement during frieze seoul 2026

the installation at space s50 references traditional techniques inside the balvenie’s historic home malting floor

images © designboom

The performative installation centers on a specific historical milestone for The Balvenie. In 1931, the whiskey maker opened its Home Malting Floor — a space that remains functional today. That same year, workers filled a European oak sherry butt from Jerez, Spain, labeled cask #239. The spirit matured for eighty-eight years until Malt Master Kelsey McKechnie bottled seventeen decanters in 2019. Rather than presenting the liquid within standard glasswork, Arsham developed an architectural vessel that treats the decades-long maturation process as a physical, geological transformation.

The Balvenie opened its Home Malting Floor — a space that remains functional today – in 1931

Daniel aArsham inspects malt during a research visit to the distillery in Speyside, Scotland

images courtesy of The Balvenie

eight layers of hand-patinated bronze and eighty-eight of oak

The sculpture housing the 88-year-old single malt is built as a split vessel made of contrasting industrial and natural materials. Its front fascia comprises eight flowing layers — each representing a decade of aging — cast in hand-patinated bronze. The surface treatment reproduces the verdigris textures and oxidation that naturally occur over time on copper stills.

The back half of the sculptural form consists of 88 layered sections of oak. Positioned at the core of the piece is a round copper disc salvaged directly from a decommissioned distillery still. Inside this enclosure sits a hand-blown crystal decanter detailed with 18-karat gold gilding and topped with a stopper shaped after the distillery’s copper pot stills.

‘At The Balvenie, I encountered a spirit that has been carefully shaped by generations of people who have protected and refined their craft, while remaining deeply connected to their origins,‘ artist Daniel Arsham explains. ‘Much of my work explores time, material transformation and the histories that objects carry. This collaboration has brought these themes together naturally; I wanted to create something that feels both ancient and contemporary, to make the passage of time tangible.‘

Arsham and malt master Kelsey McKechnie introduce the project alongside the immersive installation in Seoul

image © designboom

liquid expressions of the balvenie: the 1931 collection

The visual language of the central sculpture extends to two additional limited-edition releases within The 1931 Collection: a Twelve-Year-Old and a Fifteen-Year-Old single malt. Both expression packages feature heavily debossed exterior surfaces with green verdigris undertones fading into warm copper hues. Inside, a textured copper-colored substrate lines the box, referencing the raw metals of the production floor.

The Fifteen-Year-Old expression relies on 100 percent home-grown and home-malted barley, matured in American oak before finishing in ex-sherry European oak butts from Jerez. The Twelve-Year-Old mirrors the technical maturation process of cask #239, combining home-malted barley with the same sherry finish.

The installation at Space S50 transitions visitors, like designboom, from the live grain performance into an adjoining gallery space displaying Arsham’s bronze relic, accompanied by guided tastings led by McKechnie. Following its initial showing during Frieze Seoul, the performance and collection will travel to New York, Shanghai, and Taipei.