Helmut Lang: Alles Gleich Schwer

by Helmut Lang (Artist), Neville Wakefield (Contributor), Frank-Thorsten Moll (Contributor)

Alles Gleich Schwer --which translates in English to Everything Has an Equal Weight --presents the first institutional solo exhibition of work by the influential Austrian designer-turned-artist Helmut Lang. Having given up fashion design in 2005, Lang views his transformation not as a break but a continuation of his essential preoccupation with the combination of evocative textures. From the physical body and its social and sculptural articulation through clothing, Lang has progressed to a material-led art in his sculptural objects, which address the intersection of public and private experience. The 40-foot-long sculpture "Arbor," for example, with its intertwined poles and circles of metal, evokes the maypole rituals of Lang's European roots; in another, similarly sparse work titled "Life Forms," two oak boxes are filled with sheepskin and covered with tar, triggering the sort of psychoanalytic resonances found in the work of his friend Louise Bourgeois. Drawing on such diverse references, Lang has built up a series of installations and objects that integrate his intimate knowledge of the human form with the personal mythologies and abstract arrangements of the world at large.

122 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

Helmut Lang is an Austrian artist who lives and works in New York and on Long Island. Lang established his name-stake trademark in 1978 and presented his first international presentation at Centre Georges Pompidou in 1986, and has since his retirement from fashion in 2005, continued to work as an artist. Lang introduced unconventional materials into the urban uniform and by repositioning the perspectives of utility and modernity defined the silhouette of the 90′s and early 2000′s. He broke away from the runway show-as-spectacle in the height of the 80′s opulence and was the first to ever stream his collection online, redefining how fashion is communicated. As one of the most important designers of our times, his work left an undeniable imprint on contemporary culture and his influence continues to reverberate among the fashion community today.

Lang's seamless relationship with art has has included collaborations with artists Jenny Holzer and Louise Bourgeois. His recent works explore abstract sculptural forms and physical arrangements and space beyond the limitations of the human body. Lang had his first solo art exhibition ALLES GLEICH SCHWER at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover in 2008 and was the 2009 curator and artist of the destefashioncollection, initiated by The Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens. Future exhibitions of Lang’s art will take place at MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna and the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens.

Lang has published excerpts from his ongoing art projects Long Island Diarie and The Selective Memory Series in a number of publications, such as BUTT Magazine, Fannzine 137 and Visionaire.