A PREVIEW OF MAKE IT HARD, HELMUT LANG’S SOLO SHOW, east hampton

Exploring his new-found freedom as artist, Helmut Lang presents a unique exhibition, curated by Neville Wakefield, at East Hampton’s Fireplace Project. For his second solo show, Lang has created 16 stalactite shaped sculptures, constructed from destroyed plastic, metal, leather, fur and fabrics. If their forms and organic feel resemble those of corrosion and nature, their origins spring from Lang’s fashion past. Having retired from the industry and donated pieces to museums, Lang felt the need to repurpose his 6,000 piece archival collection – the result, a violent assault over 20 years of fashion history, shredding the fabrics and function to the unrecognisable. Or, in Neville Wakefield’s words:

‘The materials and fabrics Helmut Lang used to give temporary definition to the
body are now just traces of natural and synthetic fibers, plastics, metals, leathers, fur, skins,
feathers and hair – erasing the past and the difference they once stood for. Thus metabolized,
the material began to take the form of strangely beautiful excretions: witnesses to both the
transience of our creative endeavors, and the enduring need out of which such efforts are
born.’

Make It Hard by Helmut Lang opens tomorrow at The Fireplace Project and is on view through August 8, 851 Springs Fireplace Road, East Hampton, New York.

Text Sophie Pinchetti

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter