Legendary Austrian fashion designer turned artist Helmut Lang has destroyed his fashion archive and in return created a series of sartorial sculptures featuring pulped and twisted fabrics and fibers, scorched plastics and metals. Having given away much of his catalogue to design collections around the world, the master of Nineties minimalism decided to shred some 6,000 pieces for the exhibition at The Fireplace Project Gallery in East Hampton, New York. Inspired after a fire in the building of his New York studio almost destroyed his life’s achievements, Lang decided to complete the task himself. Out of the carnage emerge eerily, slender columns that resemble elegant birch trees. They give shape and permanence to the transience of fashion and life itself.

MAKE IT HARD, a solo exhibition by Helmut Lang is at The FIREPLACE PROJECT until August 8, 2011.
fireplaceproject.com

Tags: East Hampton, Helmut Lang, new york, Nineties minimalism, The Fireplace Project