Adam Stamp: The Slippery Slope

The Slippery Slope is a sculptural bar installation by Los Angeles–based artist Adam Stamp. Like his previous bar projects that have been realized at arts institutions in Rome, Mexico City, and Toronto, The Slippery Slope takes on local reference points with the material, architecture, and name. Designed specifically for the AAM, The Slippery Slope bar’s wooden form refers to an A-frame mountain chalet. Its name is a cheeky reference to skiing and Aspen’s winter sports culture, but also the general idea of falling down a bad path or one’s inability to have just one sip.

The bar is a space that serves as a site of contact. Stamp is particularly interested in exploring this idea during a moment when social spaces and socializing is fraught, and as people struggle to find new ways to connect, gather, and celebrate. The artist refers to his sculptures as “emotional support objects,” where objects from the real world are tweaked and imbued with a sometimes comical, sometimes tragic subjectivity. He has also created napkins, matchbooks, bartender uniforms, drawings, and other editioned yet practical bar accoutrements. Stamp’s decidedly social objects live outside of exhibition and storage, where they are activated in real time by participants who can encounter the work by ordering a drink (or two).