The concept of the Hot Mess platform as such is practically nonexistent. It all started one afternoon a few years ago when Luka Sabbat sent a direct message through Twitter to a kid living in a town in Colorado (United States) called Noah Dillon. Noah was an amateur photographer who depicted life in the suburbs. Luka, who was raised in Paris by her mom –a stylist for John Galliano and Dior– had a completely different background from him. Luka started to tell him they could work together in the future, even if he didn’t know that well yet how they would do so.
HOT MESS, OR HOW LUKA SABBAT EMPOWERS THE GENERATION Z
What started as a simple project between friends ended up becoming a new and powerful art platform that has managed to present an exhibition at the Milk Gallery in New York, on top of working for brands like The North Face or Maison Margiela. That is because everything that the ultimate influencer Luka Sabbat touches, turns into gold. And his project Hot Mess, launched with the help of his friend Noah Dillon, is causing quite a lot of commotion in the streets and the upper echelons of the art community. But, what’s their objective? Showing the new ideas and concepts that young artists who do not see themselves represented in creative industries can provide.
After meeting for the first time in Los Angeles, they had the idea of travelling together to different cities to better know each other and in some way feed their creativity. Noah needed to get out of Colorado and Luka wanted to involve himself in something that had little to do with his physical image, but more to do with his creativity and talent. They went to New York and Paris, taking pictures of everything they found along the way, of young unknown talents, without planning anything previously, doing shoots that would last for three days straight. Soon after, the Milk Gallery contacted them and they were commissioned an exhibition: they presented 250 multimedia works which they had gathered in the last two years. For the first time, their efforts would materialise into something, and in honour of their improvised methods, they called the exhibition Hot Mess, which would end up becoming the name of the platform.
That’s when they started new projects; they created an exquisite editorial for Maison Margiela that played with the concept of doctor visits, with which Noah had had bad experiences, due to his medical history. They also developed less serious projects, like when they created fake ads for brands like Celine which they placed on billboards in the middle of nowhere or when at Art Basel Miami they created works that featured framed hundred dollar bills that were then sold for one or thirty thousand dollars, depending on whether you were street kid or an art collector.
And that’s what Hot Mess is like, a platform that doesn’t take itself too seriously. They satirise and parody art’s upper echelons, from which they receive such praise, at the same time that they use the power that they have, thanks to Luka’s influence, to innovate and create art that breaks with what is established, showing what the generation z can bring to the table.
