two exhibitions in Malmö and London

After a week in Berlin it's time to head off again, this time with train to Copenhagen and and Malmö, with bags full of framed images that I hope we can carry without breaking our backs.

In Malmö I am participating in a group show, there is a Photography festival going on there over the weekend, click here for full program, it looks like it could be good! My work is on display with "Skanes Konstförening", here.

Im looking forward to going back to Sweden, even if it's only for a few days and I can't wait to eat a Semla! For those of you who do not know what that is, here is an imagefrom this page were someone has put together a list of were to buy the best one's in Sweden. It is basically a bun with creme and almond, but it's great! So between hanging the exhibition and meeting friends I will be in the bakery and eat as many of those as I can and then when I have stuffed myself full I will fly to London, that is if the plane can carry such a heavy Semla as that what I have then become.

In London is the exhibition opening of mine and David O'Kanes images for "The way of the cross", on the 8th of March at 7.30, here, and there is also a book launch for a publication showing the different artist's responses to the stations over the last five years. I never thought I would make images for a church but I think the end result is interesting and Im looking forward to the opening night, also because we got Carol Anne McGowan to do a concert for the night and that will probably be incredibly beautiful. So yeah, you should come along! That's what I will be up to for the next week and a half, travels and exhibitions. Should be good!
In Berlin we went to see a nice little show with 75 artist books from Sol LeWitt, it was at the Art Laboratory in Wedding, a small space were one can also ask to be shown the books out of the display cases, so that was cool! Well worth a visit, it's open for two more weeks.

Now I have to arrange some stuff, print out tickets and write down information. I finally managed to register in Berlin, last week I met with a woman who clearly hated her job and people who can't understand bureaucracy, like me, she was incredibly unfriendly but today a nice young man who was into photography helped me so it was easy peasy and now I officially live in Berlin. Well done me. I don't know why I am so dumbstruck as soon as it comes to paperwork of this kind, maybe because I never payed attention in the classes dealing with these kind of things in school, but now when I have to understand it in German too..I just feel like I want to go home to Sweden, nevermind, I shall be brave.

So, hopefully see you soon, either in Malmö or in London!

the fools in berlin

I'm sorry for the lack of updates from my part for the last month, i have been both busy and somehow it's now my fourth week of having some kind of flu that does not seem to leave me alone. Probably because I do not stay in bed and get well, but that is so incredibly boring once you get over the first two days of enjoying sleeping in. We have moved now aswell, left Leipzig after almost four years (on and off) and now I suppose I should call Berlin home, we'll see about that, only spent one week here after the move and then I was mainly just sick so did not get to go around so much. After that we went to Wien to meet up with Sophia and try and do some research, some of it more succesful, other parts can not even with my best will be called succesful..but I don't know what I expected, it's hard to prepare with a head full of flu. Still, our searches in the archives turned out good and I enjoyed looking through manuscripts, reading original texts and seeing beautiful drawings. Also, as a non scientist, I am still very excited about filing systems, the texture of cards and papers, ordering books and all that, I guess that's something you get tired off if you do it long enough but I still find it great. That, and buying masks in a costume shop and some records in Substance, which seemed lika a very nice little record store.

Then after ten hours on a train with Sophia sleeping, Joachim reading and me learning about the Narrenturm we arrived back in Berlin. I love being on trains in Europe, especially when you get cheap tickets and can go to Vienna for 29 euros, brillliant! After a lovely weekend with Izzy and Sophia I now have to focus and somehow try to get well again.
I think I will go and check out where I can read and how to find a studio so as to be able to start working and making images. Seems like there are many spaces here but equally many people wanting to use them..so let's see.

Narrenturm: tower of fools

Still in Vienna, though we are getting the train to Berlin tomorrow. Here is a wee sneak of a drawing of a lovely lithograph from 1796 in a book about how there are no fools (crazies) in Vienna. If you look closely you can see them in the windows and one creeping out the door. Although things worked out quite differently in the tower than we had anticipated it´s an amazing amazing place and it houses some fascinating specimens and the marks of many tragic lives.

The Gurns

Things I Saw Today in Hua Hin

For emily in abu dhabi.

It is 1.23 am in Abu Dhabi and I am sitting in a lounge trying to pass the ten hours we have to wait here before flying on to Thailand. I am increasingly grouchy with lack of comfortable sleep and regressing to a teenager because I am with my parents and everyone keeps thinking I am one. Which should be a compliment to a newly turned 27 year old but I have decided that it is just fucking annoying and patronising.
The airport here is odd, partly because it is being done up so hardly anything is open and because terminal one looks a bit like a set from a 70s sci-fi movie, it is quite amazing. The main reason though is that there seems to be no apparent structure or obvious route you need to take to get anywhere, everything is just mixed up together; duty free here, security there but also over there and then checking in and gates randomly scattered willy-nilly. We arrived in the dark, which hasn't helped to orient myself, but from what I can gather from walking around and peering out of the dark windows is that the airport appears to be some sort of Star Wars set transplanted in the desert, big domes with tiny windows and passages coming off connecting you to other domes. Although that sounds fun, I can't help feeling like we are stuck in a time hole. At the moment time, morning and night mean nothing to my body, I am sure this is how it always is when you travel far, I can't remember feeling so disorientated though.
So for now I am going to ignore time. I hope this makes sense....I am very tired.

Madness manifest though hair

In two weeks Nadja, Joachim and I are off for a week of research, work and talking at the Narrentürm (tower of fools) in Vienna.

As sad as it is that Darwin thought madness could be illustrated through this woman's hair, it does make you think about how differently mental health issues would be considered if they were more physically manifest. It's very difficult to empathize with something you cannot see or relate to. This is sort of the basic root of what I'm thinking about for this project.

Birds and textiles

I just found this achingly lovely short film, by Karni & Saul. A boy is visited by three birds on his birthday. I can't say much more than that it is tactile, quiet and magical. They use film for all it's worth and unique in enabling. If you're in the UK, you can watch the whole thing here.

Motion sketch

Laurie, Katherine & Sophia

P L A T S proposal meeting # 2

PLATS London dinner

Laurie's Elephant & Castle

Emily's photos from Laurie's puppet show at the Elephant Space... A glorious performance of romance, suspense, hilarity and regeneration.

I love the sky.

A Sun Halo Beyond Stockholm Credit & Copyright: Peter Rosén

Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a large lens. In the above case, however, there are actually millions of lenses: ice crystals. As water freezes in the upper atmosphere, small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals might be formed. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat, parallel to the ground. An observer may pass through the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and creating phenomena like parhelia, the technical term for sundogs. The above image was taken last year in Stockholm, Sweden. Visible in the image center is the Sun, while two bright sundogs glow prominently from both the left and the right. Also visible is the bright 22 degree halo -- as well as the rarer and much fainter 46 degree halo -- also created by sunlight reflecting off of atmospheric ice crystals.

The explanation is from NASA, not me.... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110110.html

Day at the Museum

Darian's chalkboards

Lovely Darian's chalkboard project is worth keeping an eye on....

Enough

Happy 2011..... and to welcome in the New Year here is an insightful, fascinating and even funny lecture from John Lanchester.

Bye Bye 2010.

kings and goats and quadroped birds

I made some t-shirts... I thought I'd share the designs on them... slightly festive, but not like christmas tree earrings or bauble jumpers.

hugo's car!

Hugo drew me a car for Christmas. He told me a while back that he really wished he could draw wheels. I think he's done an amazing job. I love it.

climbing trees or climbing snow

Back in a Sweden covered in snow, which seems to be the general state everywhere right now. I don't think I have seen this much snow in a long time and temperatures around -20 are not exactly my favorites. still, it's kind off nice, as long as indoors stay warm. Im reading Siri Hustvedt "The shaking woman", which so far I like much better then the other book(can't remember which one, sorry) I read of hers. I went to the local, small library yesterday, now the books are piled up next to my bed which is great because as soon as I got back I ran into some kind of flu and now reading and drinking tea is pretty much all I feel like doing. Hope you guys have a nice christmas where you are. ciao x.

snow day

Snow days in London.

exhibition and some stress

Hello, I haven't written for a while now, but somehow time has gone very quick the last weeks, on Friday I'm already leaving this place for Sweden and Christmas. But before that, tonight, there is a little exhibition from me and three other ladies in a room at the HGB.

Joachim made us the beautiful postcard with a crashed duck, I think it will be a fun night. Im showing a projection of 84 slides that I made with stuffed birds from 1890-1912, a treasure that I borrowed from a friend, the birds still look gorgeous after all those years put away in a shoebox, maybe because they were conserved with arsenic back in the days. Apart from that I am working on my big number one project, hoping somehow to get all the interviews I want and get access to the archives I want to visit in different countries, but all this organization takes time and is kind of hard since I don't speak French, can't believe I learned French for seven years in school and now all I do is speaking German and French is all gone, hardly a trace left.

Time to head off and finish the last things for this little exhibition, if anyone reads this in Leipzig then do come by!

shopfront #1

This is my favorite shopfront in London. It's full of treats and surprises, and no one inside. You have to ask someone 2 doors down to let you in... and the walls are really that color. One day I will recreate it and live inside, and you can all come and drink port with me.

I would like one of these for christmas please