CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/28/2013

Debauched Morsels: Wes Lang

"A Place in the Hills" (2013) is reproduced from PictureBox's highly anticipated monograph on Wes Lang, releasing this week. Essayist Arty Nelson writes, "My first date in Wes Lang World was a no-brainer. I mean, pretty much every signifier from my fucked youth was represented sexy; it was a big cast-iron kettle bubbling over with every debauched morsel that I held near and dear. Lang, the denim-drenched seer of all things American, both timeless and fleeting, draws ravenously from an iconographic well that possesses the ability to tease the many and the few—Skulls, Boobs, Feathers, Tombstones, Tepees, Castles, Bikes, Cigarettes, Mansions, Country Stars, Ernest Hemingway, Shakespeare, the Chateau Marmont, Cy Twombly, Piet Mondrian, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Martin Kippenberger, Roses, Grim Reapers, Wings, Words, Birds, Pine Trees, Horses, More Boobs, Bunnies, Zig-Zag Men, Palm Trees, Top Hats, Flash, Snakes, Flags, Crosses, Famous Books, Stars, Guitars, Coffins, Cars, and the Tao Te Ching. To put a finer point on the matter, speaking in the patois of the Jappy Girls, What's not to love? Wes Lang conjures a world littered with tastier eye candy than I could ever hope to imagine. And he does with a one-two laser hand-and-eye combo that leaves you reeling."