ANASTASIA SOTIROPOULOS

DO YOU WANT TO LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM?

model HÉLOÏSE GARRY

Located along U.S. Route 90 in Jeff Davis County, Texas, Prada Marfa is a permanent sculptural installation built in the form of a luxury boutique. The store contains authentic Prada shoes and handbags but is locked to the public, its glass door built without a handle. Conceived to gradually decay in the desert, the structure has instead become a destination—an attraction. Visitors travel long distances to stage photographs before it.

So what really is it? A monument to consumer culture, a paradox of desire and inaccessibility, a shrine to consumption and abandonment? It may suggest all at once.

We saw Prada Marfa as both site and tribute to self-importance and inspection. This intertwines with consumerism, yes, but for us it speaks to our drive to consume ourselves more than anything.

The juxtaposition of curated, sterile fashion against an abrasive and endless desert made us turn inward, binaries thrown into sharper relief. How do we tread binaries when the noise is gone? This series is 135 unedited photographs. It places loafers against high heels, sure, but it also explores what it means to want to get inside the standard and look at it up close.

Just over a mile northwest of Valentine and 26 miles from Marfa, the building sits in near-isolation. Yet, we drive. The pilgrimage reflects a peculiar need to stage ourselves at the edge of nothingness, to leave evidence of our existence in front of a building meant to weather away. Is the installation watching us, or are we watching ourselves?

Non-existent handle, unsold shoes and purses: The intent is that the building will decay untouched. Still, Valentine locals hold the keys and enter each week to quietly clean away the dust. One says the security camera isn’t real.