是艺术，更是杂志——记《Nomenus Quarterly》
当回到了浪漫纯真的年代，也许我们都不再孤独。
Nomenus Quarterly Issue 7
最新一期作品摘录
Erik Madigan Heck负责设计，创意指导……几乎包办了所有工作，售价达到6500美元的杂志《Nomenus Quarterly》最新一期Issue 7已经可以在线读到。与之合作的艺术家包括：表现派画家，祖父为精神学家弗洛伊德的Lucian Freud；在画作中创作思想的著名德国艺术家Anselm Kiefer；摄影家Adam Fuss；土耳其塞浦路斯人服装设计师Hussein Chalayan；服装设计师Ann Demeulemeester Homme；《仙境之桥》作者Katie Paterson；被称为”安特卫普六君子”之一的服装设计大师Dries Van Noten；四月曾在上海亦安画廊办展”静物”的摄影师Roger Ballen；传奇服装设计师Azzedine Alaia；The Costume Institute。杂志上所发表的作品均为首次露面，为杂志度身定做。限量版印刷将会在全球发行10本，比前几期的50本更为稀少。杂志的制作全部由手工制作在纽约完成。
第三期《Nomenus Quarterly》，更多图片请至此处
“hope of creating something truly beautiful”
大名鼎鼎的contributors,顶尖的艺术家，昂贵的售价，让其成为了一种杂志中的奢侈品，或者其本身，就是艺术形式。25岁的Erik Madigan Heck抱着唯有这种年龄才拥有的永不熄灭的热情来制作这本杂志。它看起来充满了矛盾，印刷品限量发行且售价高达上千美元，每一期的售价都不尽相同；而同时也推出在线阅读版。如果你仅仅读到这里，那么我想你无法明白Erik为什么要创办这样的杂志，为什么杂志在还没有发行前便已经被订购一空。不过我摘录了最新的Laura Neilson对他的访谈中，或许可以说明一切。访谈有一些长，但无论你是不是一个摄影师、杂志编辑、只要你是个对未来有憧憬，而又害怕被现实社会过速吞没的人，他的想法、起步、行动和态度，都是值得学习和借鉴的。
Where did the name Nomenus come from?
I would walk into my building everyday and see this little sign on the door that said “Nomenus.” And I never got it. I thought someone had tagged the door. And then one day, like six months later, I realized that it was just “no menus,” and there was no space between it. It had taken me that long to understand it, and I thought it was amazing that such little space made me unable to see its true meaning. I thought that was a pretty big symbol for what I wanted Nomenus to be as a publication or as this “thing.” And it worked because 95% of people don’t get it. They think it’s Latin or something profound. And it’s really just “no menus.”What compelled you to start Nomenus?
I started photographing when I was 14. My mother’s a painter, my father collects art and they always brought me to museums when I was little. Minneapolis is a really amazing city for art. You have a lot of really great museums, and galleries, and it’s very accessible. If you’re young and you want to be an artist, it’s easier to believe that you can do it. Whereas in New York, everything’s so oppressive and seems out of reach at first. It’s like no matter where you come from, you always start at ground zero. No one gives a shit about you. So the only way that I could feasibly start to make an impact while being in New York was to really do something different-to create my own area or place to show my own work.What about other magazines?
Initially when you grow up you say, “I want to shoot for Vogue,” or “I want to shoot for Dazed or V,” or whatever you’re into. But for me, there were very few publications that got it right. I had been looking at magazines that existed in art and fashion and none of them really functioned the way I wanted a publication to function. None of them are really showcasing worthwhile art or fashion-they’re just in a weird in-between place. So I wanted to cultivate what my own very specific idea of aesthetics in art and fashion was, and what I felt was being missed or bypassed by the abundance of mainstream pop culture. I wanted to feature the important artists and designers-not necessarily the trendy new kids and I wanted you to see their work, not their faces…Would you call that arrogant?
It’s very arrogant in a way. Anytime you take something into your own hands, it’s an arrogant task. But I felt it was necessary to show people an alternative to my very anti-aestheticized generation, you know? Because Nomenus inherently exists in this world that’s superficial and really pretentious to begin with, it’s in dialogue with these already existing pretensions. So part of me wants to say, let them eat cake. Let people pay the highest price, because you know what, we have the best product out there and it’s worth it. And it works. It sells out before it even launches.How did you first approach the artists you wanted to work with?
In the initial stages we didn’t even have an issue, so our first issue we just picked up a phone. We had nothing to show, and we got some pretty influential artists right off the bat like Anne-Valerie Hash in Paris, and Francesco Patriarca in Rome. They were more subversive artists, but they’re really influential in their own realms. And that issue ended up being great in terms of just putting it online and seeing the world react. Then we made this book that was really high production, so we were able to take that around for issue two.How has it evolved?
It’s continuously grown in terms of the prestige of the people that are in it. Like Anselm Kiefer and the Lucien Freud, but their works have existed for a long time. Most people know Anselm Kiefer for his giant paintings, but no one knows him for his watercolors and his watercolors happen to be very beautiful. So it made sense to bring those back and show them, because it’s almost like showing something new. And it’s the same with Lucien Freud. Most people know the paintings of these obese men, and they may not have seen the ones that we’ve shown. So they kind of offer a fresh approach.What excites you the most about each new issue?
It’s really stressful. But my favorite part of the whole process? I like photographing the fashion features. And the ability to work with such a diverse group of people and have them really like what I’m doing. It feels really good.You seem to really embrace the internet by making Nomenus free online.
You have to. That’s the beauty of it. Even if you do subscription service or a site is password-encoded or whatever, someone’s gonna find a way around it. It’s inevitable. You should want people to see your product. You should be able to be smart enough to figure out other ways to make money from showing it. It’s the Robin Hood theory, give it for free.So this current issue is full access? With the exception of the physicality, everything that the box offers is online?
Actually, the box is just a sample of what’s online. Online you get a lot more. The idea of the box is that you get these really amazing prints, but just a small selection. And online it’s fully free, with a bigger selection. It’s quite the reverse from the way things first existed online.
What are you plotting for volume eight?
I already have volume eight mapped out. I’m trying to get all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan to do a shoot in Staten Island, where they grew up and kind of do this piece about them as cultural shape-shifters. If I think back to my years in middle school and years when I was really changing as a person, they were definitely a huge cultural influence. Even in Excelsior, as a white kid, you liked the Wu-Tang. It didn’t matter. And I think no one’s taken them out of the hip-hop context and really analyzed them as these guys who massively changed culture. We’re gonna try to do that, but make it visually based. I want to show you Shaolin as grimy as it can be.When will that be out?
Probably early-October.Do you have any favorite volumes?
Every one feels like it’s bigger and better. It’s weird because I’m full of contradictions. It’s become-in issue seven-what I didn’t want it to be in the beginning. The initial intention was to show you these artists that are amazing, but weren’t so well known. This last issue was very focused on already famous artists, but showing you things about them that you might not have known. So the next issue is, “How do I top that? How do I top the line-up of some of the most influential contemporary artists and designers?” I think mixing Wu-Tang with Balenciaga and Sugimoto might be a good start…no one’s done that yet.
我丝毫不怀疑未来新闻会不再需要纸为媒介进行传播，新闻的寿命很短，而新闻要求被迅速传播，如同流感病毒，而网络完全可以比印刷厂做得又干脆又漂亮。而杂志不同。我们不仅读本月的杂志，我们也会回忆往期的专题。杂志不是为了新闻而生，而是为了深度而生，或者说，是为了在某一特定的时刻，我们不为潮流所带动，而真正坚定态度，去用自己的双眼观摩花花世界，用自己的双手抚摸每一页不同的质感，去静下心来，不再同时开着几个网络页面——面前只有杂志，捧在手心，感受到全心沉浸的美丽。每个做杂志的人都难以抗拒由自己审美搭建的世界，而真正所谓的杂志人，又有谁能兼大胆和眼光独特，概念和内容不相互重复，活在现实里却始终怀有对理想的拳拳之心呢？
希望读者能够重新读杂志，而做杂志的人，更能重新认识杂志。
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