Do-Ho Suh

I have a special fondness for art that speaks in the language of architecture, or somehow challenges you or touches you, in the same way, or perhaps even scale, as architecture. To me architecture can absolutely be a multi sensory experience, and certain artists (and architects, of course) really take that concept to some very strange and beautiful places. One I have come across several places lately is this guy: the Korean artist, Do-Ho Suh.

He is an artist who works in several different media, but I will show you some of his 'Fabric architecture' pieces, as he himself calls them. They are just beyond belief stunning and impressive, and I will be keeping up with his activities, because I would just love to see one of these installations in real life! I love the way he makes the interrelated spaces look almost like a living organism, and the way he so elegantly demonstrates that the feeling of such things as 'room' or 'ceiling' has very little to do with actual solid walls.

The work above is from a show called Perfect Home at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, 2012-13 (photo: Taegsu Jeon). He explains this fascination with houses, rooms, homes and collapsible spaces in his art, with the impact immigrating from Korea to USA had on him, and the way he lives today as an internationally acclaimed artist; dividing his time between Seoul, New York and the rest of the art loving world, having a home both everywhere and nowhere. As he puts it; what we call 'home' could be just infinitely transportable.

Here are some more images from Perfect Home:

(these two photos are courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong)

Next are some images from an installation called Staircase III, at Tate Modern in 2010. You could also see a little video about this particular work. (the two photos below I have not been able to credit)

If you should happen to be anywhere near Seoul these days, you can actually see the last work I will show you here - it is part of a show called Home Within Home at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in Seoul until May 11, 2014. (the last photos: copyright MMCA, Seoul, Korea).

(do you see the house inside the house....?)

This is where I was about a week ago

For the last couple of years, in mid February, we have gone to Härjedalen in Sweden to ski, hang out and generally just relax. To me this is one of the highlights of the winter. I love the skiing up around or above the tree line, especially, the white vastness of the views and even - sometimes - the freezing, howling wind. And then I love to take the skis off and walk on sweaty, wobbly legs into a steamy 'våffelstuga' and sip hot coffee with waffles and jam. This year we didn't have a lot of sun (so most of my pictures were sort of dull and dark looking), but nevertheless had some really great trips, and lots and lost of fun. We also found time to do some crazy nail art, bake weird looking (but tasty) muffins and make pretty ice lanterns. Here are some of the better snapshots...

You have to meet this guy

His name is Louis Philippe De Gagoue, and I stumbled upon him by chance. He is a stylist and fashion blogger, and there are gazillions of those folks around, but he truly stands out in all his splendour! As far as I can see, he is based in Morocco, and there is a very distinct north African vibe to many of his fabulous outfits, but basically he is just universally creative and awesome. Maybe he will inspire you as well? I've just spent half the day looking at more or less every photo he ever posted!

Images are from his blog, which you should check out - or you could follow him on Instagram. Wow!
And he gets extra credit for wearing those jelly sandals, they were always a favourite thing of mine.

Below zero fun

I am packing for our traditional, annual skiing trip to Sweden, and just can't wait to be up there in the cold, crystal clear winter air! We go with this other family we know, in a larger group of Danish cross country skiing enthusiasts. We share a cabin with our friends: four adults, three kids. I love skiing, and we all do - but of course, you can't ski 24/7. Books are read. Small, electronic screens are usually turned on, somewhere. We cook a lot of nice, sometimes complicated meals, eat sweets and drink wine in generous amounts, and it's not a health farm, exactly.
But healthy for the legs, and very healthy for the soul.

We also tend to improvise strange creative projects, such as the ice-and-marshmallow mobile we made outside the window last year. We had a theory about these marshmallows; thought they would deform in some interesting way, in the freezing cold - but they just turned sticky. 

The heavy ice baubles, however, were just gorgeous! Wonder what we'll come up with this year?

Tourist in my own town

I live only a ten minute bicycle ride from this beautiful baroque building, Frederiksberg Slot. It is splendidly situated atop a hill, in what is our local city park today, but used to be peaceful countryside, in 1703, when it was established. It was built as a humble country getaway by the king Frederik IV, and has been extended from the original one wing (which used to be red!) to a much larger building with an inner courtyard, and even a small chapel. 

Ochre yellow and serene, it sits up there, as a powerful focal point in my local neighbourhood. We use the park a lot, for jogging, ice skating (there is a free skating rink at Frederiksberg Runddel from November to March) and of course for doing nothing at all. There is a cosy little playground as well.

There is an awful lot to say about this charming park, but I will share a little tip with you, that may not get into the official tourist guides. If you visit, you may bump into 'Hejremanden' - The Heron Man. He is there practically every day, all year round, talking to the many herons in the park and feeding them yummy fish snacks. He is a bit of a local legend, and we love to sit a little bit away (herons are very large and slightly nervous creatures!) and watch his quiet, patient interaction with the birds.

But back to Frederiksberg Slot: since 1869 it has housed the Danish Army Officers Academy, and every last Saturday each month, you can take a guided tour with one of the school cadets. Last week I, and two friends, finally got around to it, and it was a charming experience. 

The building itself is impressive, and once you get inside, it is a funny mix of modern (or, actually, not so modern!) school equipment, and priceless historical paintings, chandeliers and such. Parts of the palace is under restoration, so some of the rooms have fresh, gently restored colours and trompe l'oeil paintings, boldly paired with sci-fi style Luceplan lamps! The cadets who do the tours are far from being art historians, and they will give you a very personal and fun tour - and will do so in English, if you ask for it! The view from the roof balcony must be one of the most spectacular in all of Copenhagen, so if not for anything else, I will recommend it only for that!

Here are some of my snapshots.....

Crash

About a week ago my old (old being the operative word), otherwise trustworthy DELL pc finally decided to crash on me, and go out with a bang. I work with a laptop plus an external harddisk, attatched to a docking station, and have a large screen on my desk, as well as a traditional keyboard, a cordless mouse and a pen + pad thingy (which I am in the process of learning to use, by the way). The particular way my workstation is set up, is a very personal thing to me - I'm not saying I can't work anywhere else, but it's like an old favourite overcoat, where everything is just right. The perfect number of pockets, not too warm, versatile and timeless, and you always know exactly in which pocket your keys or your phone are. You get the drift. And as to the interior of the pc itself, oh my, everything is just customized and arranged in the very particular ways I like to organize things - and I am fiercely protective of my pc, nobody gets to muck about in it, or install or reinstall or what have you, without my being very wary about it.

The thing is, I am not a nerd who knows just everything about how to maintain equipment. I guess I'm a typical old school creative sort of gadget user; I know just enough to keep out of support's way - but when the shit really hits the fan, I am lost.

So the other day, I just sat there, in my good old office chair, having a jolly old time with some work, when the display started to zig zag in some rather pretty, pink hues. The fan went whirring like crazy, and the whole thing sounded like an old microwave oven. My husband - the software engineer - told me to lock down, carefully vacuum the fan through the lattice, let rest, and reboot.

I did, and I all I got was this. Green, fluttering pixels.

Not exactly as pretty as below, but I will show you this instead, because it looks much cooler.

And gone it was. That is, all of it's everyday, vital functions. Apparently this is what an overheated, overstuffed old pc with a smashed graphics card looks like. Enter the husband - software engineer and life saver - with a gizmo, in which you could insert the disk from this stranded whale, and sort of make a transplant of its brain contents, into a new, fresh body. I was lucky, and lost no files, as far as I can see. Phew.

So now I am in the painstaking process of moving thousands of files into a new pc, and everything is just white and empty and smells like paint. I don't know my way around the neighbourhood, so I can't find a supermarket or the short cut to the metro station. You know the feeling. But I am getting there. Today I restored my hundreds and hundreds of organized and categorized bookmarks from Firefox (I've never tried that before, and it was really easy!), and it's starting to feel like home again.