On the road to Marfa, I came across something I was hoping I might see, but didn't expect to find on my route.
Driving down a typical rural West Texas road, I noticed a building up ahead. Figuring it for another abandoned failed general store, I reevaluate my expectations as I notice muddy tired tracks formed from right and left turns out of the lot in front of the building.
My rising suspicions are confirmed as I blow by this:
Eww. Prada? When is the Gucci store opening? Gucci is the only couture worth wearing. Gucci.Out in Valentine, Texas, population 187, lay the Marfa Prada store. Or art installation, if you're so inclined.
Seems the locals weren't so inclined. The German artists behind the building intended to have the structure age without repair, such that it would eventually fade into the stark landscape like so many of the spectral facades that dot the roads out in these parts. Their conviction was challenged when, days after the piece was completed, vandals broke out with windows, stole the shoes and handbags, and spray-painted "dumb" all over the walls. A fitting reception to haute art in deep West Texas, me thinks, and really not unexpected.
The artists did decide to rebuild, and now the store features a security system and bags without bottoms (and loaded with weight sensors attached to an alarm).
If you've got a moment to spare in the sparseness of Route 90, drop on by and stare.
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