29.2.12

David Hockney's Enduring Freshness















I find David Hockney's playful and free experiments with new technology  deeply moving. “I draw flowers every day on my iPhone and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last."  The way he took hold of the Iphone and then of the Ipad is fascinating. He uses the app Brushes but it took him a while to be able to play with all its possibilities of transparency. The flowers that his partner would buy every day and put on his bed table was a frequent subject but catching the light was his obsession. "The fact that the screen is illuminated makes you choose luminous subjects, or at least I did." A lot of these little works were done in the  early hours  in the morning. "I've got this lovely bedroom window, and the flowers are there and the light's changing. I go to bed when the sun goes down and wake when it starts getting light, because I leave the curtains open. The little drawings of the dawn are done while I'm still in bed. That's the window I see and the shutters." 
More on the parisian exhibition at Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent. 

27.2.12

Vanessa Bruno's home in Paris Le Marais




 Pictures above from Interior Magasinet Norway 





Vanessa Bruno's home by Photographer Birgitta Wolfgang Drejer




French Fashion Designer Vanessa Bruno has decorated her home in Paris Le Marais with a mix of French and Danish flea findings. The  delicate powder  colours are a mix of pink, lilac and light green hues that reflect her French, Italian and Scandinavian upbringing. 


26.2.12

Galerie Salon Paris

















The celebration of the end of Winter and the reverie on Sweden reminded me of a very special parisian shop in Saint Germain des Prés, rue Bourbon Le Château. The young couple who created Galerie Salon some years ago have retained some childhood magic. Through the years they have created a wonderful world of their own.  Their blog is full of little gems and I am moved by the way they openly tell their journeys on the roads hunting for unique pieces of the past through uneven Scandinavian landscapes.  Some of my favorite posts  here: GALERIE SALON - Antiquités & Astier de Villatte: jour J and GALERIE SALON - Antiquités & Astier de Villatte: En route ma Poule!




Galerie Salon

4 rue Bourbon le château

75006 Paris





Photographs: © Galerie Salon


25.2.12

Obsession with Tiles

Source unknown



Shubin +Donaldson Architects used encaustic cement Fez tiles from Los angeles based firm Granada tiles via Remodelista


Studio INAMATT Kitchen

23.2.12

Tenka Gammelgaard's World in Black and Light



Tenka Gammelgaard's studio   




  
Plates for Royal Copenhagen


Hanging books



I could spend hours and hours roaming through Danish artist Tenka Gammelgaard's visual inspiration diary. It gives me the same feeling of deep knowledge and empathy we can have with  authors we are deeply familiar with.  All the pictures above are taken from Tenka Gammelgard's  blog.

22.2.12

Celebration of First Spring and the Tree Hotel in Sweden


The mirror cube with glasses tinted with an ultraviolet,  which are visible for birds only.


Inside the mirror cube



The twigged bird's nest


The disc-shaped UFO in Winter


The blue cone

Ash Wednesday and the antique tradition of burning Winter made me think of a place where to celebrate the coming of Spring. Once again I turned to the North with its wildest nature and room for cabin's dreams.  Five shelters up in the trees, hide-out four to six meters above the ground... A minimal eco-footprint project by groundbreaking Scandinavian architects. Britta and Kent Lindvall made their dream come true in one of the most beautiful parts of Northern  Sweden, surrounded by natural forest with spectacular views of the Lulea River. More about it by Tham&Videgardarkitekter and Tree hotel.

20.2.12

Lotty Lindeman's Challenging Creations



Lotty Lindeman, Ontspruiten 2006 limited edition Arums Galerie Paris





Lotty Lindeman,Ontspruiten 2006






Nathalie Pasqua's home by photographer Yvan Tereschenko for Elle Decor Italia October 2010

"Man move things. Without the interference of human beings, objects like furniture are just shape. A function is only attached by use. The chair, initially an indefinable shape, transforms into a comfortable chair at the moment you sit down and folds back by itself as soon as you stand up (...). The chair is a dialog between man and object, a conversation in space. The chair is built up of a mechanical stainless steel frame which is covered by a woolen woven felt. Hundreds of tiny hinges make this fabric fold and expand. The making process is on the edge of what is possible and takes over a three weeks for each chair; it is a challenge to produce." Frankie Flood in Handverker.



This stunning chair by Lotty Lindeman, edited by Arums galerie reminds me  of other iconic design chairs, the B306 by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier, and Edouard Jeanneret or the folding Lounge Chair by Eileen Gray for her project E 1027. More about it on Kaufmann Mercantile blog, "Eileen Gray E 1027 and the Architecture of Secrets."


Charlotte Perriand, on the B 306 Chaise Longue 1928, Design Museum London 



 Folding Lounge Chair by Eillen Gray, open on Kaufmann Mercantile blog

Folding lounge chair by Eileen Gray, folded on
Kaufmann Mercantile blog


18.2.12

Marni's Mix and Match



 Marni for H&M via Balibulle

I don't know much about fashion but I happened to browse through the German edition of Vogue while sipping a cappucino at Reise Café in Cologne when some of these pictures caught my eye. I enjoyed the mix of prints and cultures, in the Spring collection for H&M, that is reminiscent of African wax and japanese dots. I couldn't help weaving links with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.


Yayoi Kusama's Obsessions






Yayoi Kusama's " The obliteration room" 2011 GOMA Queensland, Australia 

I am happy to participate in Yayoi Kusama's interactive project "The obliteration room" by re-blogging the installation; those millions of posts oblitering the net like so many dots! There are currently two major exhibitions of Yayoi Kusama's work, one at Queensland Gallery GOMA in Australia, "Look now, see forever" and one at the Tate Gallery, London until 5 June 2012. 

17.2.12

Jo Nagasaka's Flat Tables




Jo Nagasaka "Flat tables" for OPTIONS




63.02º, built in a densely residential area in Tokyo

A minimalistic  "green living" home in Tokyo. More about it via arch daily

Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka of schemata architecture office ltd began working on "flat tables" in 2009 by adding colorful epoxy resin to antique tables. He has now developed five "flat tables" for Dutch contemporary department store OPTIONS.

OPTIONS In Amsterdam



Exclusive Mosa tiles for the Hotel Exchange by studio Ina-Matt



OPTIONS Damrak 49 Amsterdam

Pillow by Studio INA-MATT



OPTIONS is a brand new exclusive department store in Amsterdam. Opened in December 2011, it is part of an initiative by Lloyd Hotel and the cultural ambassy Amsterdam. A new hotspot where you can find located in three buildings a 230 square meters contemporary department store, an hotel the Exchange and a restaurant Stock. Today I just would like to focus on Options and to present its exclusive collaboration with Studio Ina-Matt. Now it is possible to find these beautiful tiles, fabrics and pillows for exclusive sale at OPTIONS.







16.2.12

DTILE Netherlands









 DTILE

Conçu en 1997 par ARNOUT VISSER, ERIK JAN KWAKKEL et PETER VAN DER JAGT, puis présenté par DROOG à Milan en avril 2001 sous la forme d'une cuisine expérimentale, le projet artisanal est édité pour la première fois en 2010 par une firme hollandaise DTILE. View here Dtile Pop-corn catalogue.
In 2001 three designers , Peter van der Jagt, ErikJan Kwakkel and Arnout Visser designed a system to tile three dimensionally. Originally as part of the Droog Design Collection, the products are now available to anyone. Pop-Corn is the French distributor of the Netherland firm DTILE Nederlands.