Alles Gleich Schwer - Helmut Lang / Absolut

Photographs by Sesse Lind

In an Absolut World / Alles Gleich Schwer. Helmut Lang. Virtual Platform Launch. 09.30.08. 

Alles Gleich Schwer / Helmut Lang / Absolut

Courtesy of Absolut

In an Absolut World Alles Gleich Schwer by Helmut Lang. Produced by Absolut. 

Helmut Lang

Helmut Lang To Stage First Solo Exhibition. By Godfrey Deeny.Fashion Wire Daily. 06.12.08.
excerpted text:

Helmut Lang is to stage his solo art exhibition, the latest example of signs of life by the man once regarded as the most influential fashion designer on the planet. (Godfrey Deeny)

Entitled “Helmut Lang – Alles Gleich Schwer,” or All Has Equal Weight, the solo effort will be staged in Hanover as part of a major event named Hanover Goes Fashion, with some 10 exhibitions held in leading museums and institutes. Lang’s show will be staged in the German city’s Kestnergesellschaft and curated by Neville Wakefield and Frank-Thorsten Moll. (Godfrey Deeny)

“The continuity is that I’m expressing what’s important to me with the appropriate form, content and context through different mediums and other dimensions” (Helmut Lang)

Michael Nevin

Photographs by fashionartedit

Arts & Letters. By Carol Lee. Paper. April 2008. 

excerpted text:

"Four years later, this [the journal] little magazine with its humble beginnings now has art- and fashion-world luminaries knocking down its door (which moved to Williamsburg last fall) for under-the-radar collaborations in exchange for cool over-the-radar credibility. Kicking off the new year with a cover shoot by Juergen Teller, the journal and its gallery space also hosted designer Helmut Lang's first-ever art show in January."

Helmut Lang "sceance de travail #07"

"sceance de travail #07". Helmut Lang. Editor & Art Director Nr. 6. F/W 07-08. 

excerpted text: 

"The idea came up when we started to use images from the hl-art archives and I began to prepare them without particular reason to find another shape, form or context. Somehow I like to work in a way that I start with something unimportant, try to change it and then see where it will lead me, how far I want to go with it or if at the end I'm actually interested in it at all. This particular series is somehow comparable to preparing a material for an unspecified body of work, like one would prepare a piece of wood to transform it later or start to collect metal to have it melted into something else. During the procedure there are different stages that always look quite interesting and that sometimes are strong enough to then lead to an idea that is worth pursuing for a moment. They are studies for a more final artistic project, but somehow quite interesting as they are more particular but less ambitious at the same time. I do like that certain elements that are actually mostly from the accessoire-vetement series have a complete life of their own and changes the perception on how one looks at things, which is particular to a more two dimensional approach that resonates in a different dimension." 

" The form is always important, as is the content. I don't think that one is more important. They complement each other". 

"The archive pictures in themselves are really not important. The idea is really more what one is able to see by looking at the abstraction". 

"I kind of always revisit things to see if they still have any meaning going forward". 

"I think that I'm influenced by whatever happens around me realistically and my curiosity to imagine other dimensions or meanings around that. If I'm able to blur these different angles together one can find a different way to look at things."

"I always felt that being true to oneself is the only way to move forward in life as well as in one's work. I think otherwise  you loose your authenticity because you betray the idea of it. I think I could always translate it in my work but it's also not something that goes in or out of fashion." 

"When I decided to work beyond fashion, it felt more like an evolution and quite natural. I'm using other mediums and materials to express form and content in a way that I hope will be interesting enough. The professional terms are quite different and it's essentially a question of there being an audience who is interested and inspired by what one does."  

Jackson Pollock

"Jack the Dripper". Text by Armand Limnander. The New York Times Style Magazine / Men. Spring 2008.  

excerpted text and quotes: 

"Like James Dean and Marylin Monroe, Pollock has entered the canon of American icons not just because of his artistic accomplishments, but also thanks to the myth surrounding his tortured life and premature death. (Many have surmised that even if he had survived the car crash, his severe alcoholsim woudl have killed him). No wonder fashion designers keep bringing him up: he's the archetype of the all-American, ruggedly handsome, bottle-swinging man with plenty of talent and a (well-hidden) sensitive side". 

"A year ago, Hedi Slimane Borrowed Pollock's drip artwork for Dior Homme; in the late 90's, Helmut Lang started a trend of paint-splattered denim, sending enthusiastic imitators to their garages. (As with Pollock's art, the do-it-yourself versions never quite matched the original). This season, Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent refreshed the action-painting look with pants, shorts and shoes smudged with practically every color in the Benjamin Moore catalog: in New York Adam Kimmel took a complementary approach, focusing not on the abstract expressionist's artwork but on what the artist actually wore". 

"Pollock famously said that modern art is the expression of the contemporary aims of the age we're living in. I find that very inspirational, because every generation has to deal with issues in its own way. His work was the result of a true need to express, and with jeans, T-shirts and overalls, he embodied the idea of a man as creator. He was at the forefront of existential masculinity".(Adam Kimmel)

Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane. A/W 07-08. 

Helmut Lang

Helmut Lang. Livraison issue 3 SECRET IDENTITIES. 2007-2008.  

Helmut Lang "Next Ever After"

Helmut Lang.Interview by Neville Wakefield. the journal. Entry #21.

excerpted quotes:

"I think its quite active from either side. It reminds me of a beehive right now. It has all become one".

"Not at all, I think the moment when I decided to work beyond fashion, it felt more like an evolution. It is like a lot of the decisions in my life that have already been there unconsciously".

"I thought that I would want to express things in different mediums. Too many things had become positively predictable".

"Yes, but where there's confinement there's also independence".