As artists, celebrities, and influencers rub elbows this week at Art Basel Miami Beach, Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, the duo known as FriendsWithYou, put a stake in the South Beach ground, so to speak. At 4 p.m. on Monday, they unveiled their new sculpture “Starchild,” a 50-foot-tall orange-hued metal figure commissioned by the City of Miami Beach, looming large at the intersection of West 41st Street and Pine Tree Drive. With this new installation—a supersized stick figure of sorts, its arms outstretched lovingly—FriendsWithYou is advancing the mission they started 20 years ago, when Borkson and Sandoval first began their joint project with the simple motto “magic, luck, and friendship!” For Borkson, Art Basel is a kind of homecoming, since it was in South Florida that he first met Wes Pentz, better known as Diplo, in middle school, where the two got into quite a bit of trouble. So, in keeping with the spirit of lasting friendship, the artist duo reminisced on old times with the Grammy-winning DJ in a group chat, screenshots of which they were kind—or crazy—enough to share. By the end, a famous (and funny) friend of Borkson and Sandoval’s even enters the chat, sending things gloriously off the rails.
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