Windows of Erik Madigan Heck
In the midst of New York Fashion Week, artist and photographer Erik Madigan Heck offers a place of solace while still being fashion-forward. Beginning tonight and continuing through February 22, Madigan Heck will project a selection of images from his upcoming multi-volume project No Photos Please onto the street windows of NeueHouse in New York. The images, which all come from the inaugural volume titled Pictures No Content, blur the line between the definitions of photography, digital design, fashion, and illustration.
“The name came as a reaction against the word ‘content,’ which has become ubiquitous in the creative industries,” Madigan Heck explains. “As an artist, the word has come to foreshadow the death of quality and proliferation of works made to fill space or ‘create content.'”
Straying from the typical presentation content, Madigan Heck’s publication is not traditionally bound, but rather is presented as 28 loose, offset color prints that come together in a clear, plastic sleeve. The images were created over the course of one month, during which the 31-year-old collaborated with fashion labels Aganovich, Comme des Garcons, and Thom Browne.
“I felt that all three designers had the strongest Spring/Summer 2015 collections and all offered something to me as an artist that I could personally reflect on in the image-making process,” Madigan Heck continues. “Thom Browne and Comme des Garcons were theatrical and Aganovich offered a pared-down simplicity that was still based in fantasy, which for me is one of the best combinations fashion can offer.”
In the slideshow above, we’re offering an exclusive look at his Aganovic and Comme des Garcons collaborations. While Madigan Heck’s images of Aganovich’s collection rely heavily on the desert landscape of Florence, Arizona, and play with shadow, composition, and lighting, his work with Comme des Garcons substantiates his ability to blend various mediums, presenting a more graphic interpretation of the collection.
“It’s always changing, but my approach [toward photography] is always rooted in looking back into art history and trying to find ways to make new images that are in dialogue with historical painting,” the artist says. “I always default to saying that I am a photographer who wishes he was a painter, but it’s true.”
PICTURES NO CONTENT IS AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE AT COLETTE AND NEUEHOUSE. MADIGAN HECK’S IMAGES WILL BE PROJECTED ON THE NEUEHOUSE WINDOWS TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 17 THROUGH FEBRUARY 22.
