Winter in Stockholm

Winter in Stockholm. Photograph by me.

Svensk Fluxus = Swedish Fluxus.

Svensk Fluxus = Swedish Fluxus. By Bengt Af Klintberg. Rönnells Antikvariat, 2006. 128pp., illustrations, 25.5x22cm.

"Svensk Fluxus / Swedish Fluxus is the first comprehensive Swedish presentation of the international network of artists, composers and poets known as Fluxus. Richly illustrated with unique letters and photographs, this book gives a personal account of Fluxus and its offshoots in Sweden. Author Bengt af Klintberg has been the Swedish outpost of the network since taking part in the legendary Fluxus concerts of the 1960s."

This might be one of the most wonderful books I own. The Fluxus movement has been one of my favourite artistic expressions from a very very young age - and I'm still endlessly enriched by it!

This book was a wonderful birthday present some years ago from someone who knows me very well. A very late thank you!

NOTE:
As the book is in both English and Swedish you non-Swedes can enjoy it too! Contact Rönnels Antikvariat to order / where to order from.

This might be the most beautiful magazine cover

Another Magazine SS09. Via Dazed Digital.

This might be the most beautiful magazine cover that's ever been. Sensational Tilda Swinton - wearing some sensational clothes.

Greatest ever letter of complaint

Image of old letter (1649) from google images.

This must be the greatest letter of complaint - ever! I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my entire life! Really!

Artists’ Books by Lizanne van Essen.

Artists’ Books by Lizanne van Essen. Exhibition in the Artists' Books Study Area at the Library, School of Creative Arts, UWE Bristol (1st March-26 April 2009). Images from the exhibition website.

"I started out with a delight in books and the variety of shapes they could take, and this gradually led to the transformation of flat pages into 3D forms by cutting and folding. I initially sought to combine images and words, symbolising the conceptual basis of frustration and anger by frustrating the image – by fracturing it, and hindering an easy reading of the work - hinting at the concept with words, yet seeking to attract people to the negative subject matter rather than repel them. Symbolic bars and broken up images, such as the weeping eye, turned into geometric forms springing free from the restrictions of the flat covers."

Continue reading here.

I must say I'm so tremendously impressed with her work and really look forward to seeing the exhibition in person.

obliterati specimen I.

obliterati specimen I. By Dana Milton. From the ""(ob)literati"" series, 2008. 5"w x 5"h x 7"d.

"There is a space between the subject and the object. It is a space held in an endless cycle. It is created, perceived, and repeated again and again. That repetition at once both educates and negates, and then recreates."

obliterati specimen I (in the series ""(ob)literati"") is made from "The Trial of Socrates" by Plato as well as Little Leather Library books c.1921 and Victorian era terrarium boxes. The pages have been "carefully and painstakingly folded and cut into shape (obliterated, if you will)."

Dana sent me a very sweet email and I just find her work beautiful!

I Blame Coco.

I Blame Coco by I Blame Coco (her myspace here).

I discovered this girl when she performed at the Swedish label Hope's SS 09 show last summer - and I'm not quite sure why I haven't posted about her before. Anyway this song is great and very addictive.

Today's pattern inspiration

Work by Sara Berner.

This combination of textiles on the Swedish Textile Designer Sara Berner's homepage is really wonderful in so many ways I think.

Today's pattern inspiration.

Mingus Ah Um.

Mingus Ah Um. By Charlie Mingus. (The link takes you to the 1999 remastered re-release. The album was originally released in 1959.)

"Ah Um represented a turning point in Mingus' career on multiple fronts.
The personnel is a mix of mainstays from the bassist's '50s ensembles and newer voices that would play an increasingly important role in Mingus' tumultuous output during the '60s.
Producer Teo Macero began his career on sax and was an early participant in Mingus' Jazz Workshops before arranging the Columbia sessions that would result in Ah Um and Mingus Dynasty (Legacy, 1959) and later the bassist's triumphant return to the label with Let My Children Hear Music (1972).
A transition is also apparent in the choice of material, as Mingus moves away from the third-stream, modernist vision—"Self Portrait in Three Colors"—cultivated in the mid-'50s to a more guttural, increasingly political style embodied by the still lyricless "Fables of Faubus.""

Continue reading here.

An incredible album and truly one of the most amazing covers ever.

UPDATE: Read this great interview with S. Neil Fujita, who's done the cover art for Mingus Ah Um.

oh no monday morning

oh no monday morning. photograph by this girl.

The biggest luxury in the world is to be able to always take Monday off.

but you're only seven I said

At the top of his lungs he shouted "I! HAVE NOT! BEEN! UNHAPPY! MY WHOLE LIFE!" "But you're only seven I said." The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

Discovering phrases - thinking them over - collecting them - taking them out of context - bringing them back into context - making them something new - making them something else. The joy of a book.

all I ask for is coffee on the lawn

Images from fikapaus coffee cups flickr set.

My longing for a glimpse of the sun or more than two seconds of natural light a day will last until May and it will be tedious...

...but truly: all I ask for today is to have coffee outside on the lawn.

As far as being nostalgic and romanticising Stockholm: nothing beats sitting on the balcony high high over Stockholm with your most beautiful coffee cup (you can't go wrong with Stig Lindberg).

I'd Have That Day With You Again.

I'd Have That Day With You Again. Work by Adam Hayes
(image manipulatied by me).

Beauty and print

Image from old Harper's Baazar issue -
found via (and cropped from) this Dear Nike post.

Woodland.

Woodland. Photographs by Mårten Lange. Farewell Books, Göteborg, 2008. 42 pp., Numerous black & white illustrations., 6x7½".

"When my door is shut and my lamp has gone out

and I sit in twilight's breathing wrapped,

then I feel around me move

branches, a tree's branches.
In my room where no one else lives

the tree spreads a shadow as soft as gauze.

It lives silent, it grows well,

it becomes what some unknown one thinks.
Some spirit-power, power secret made,

in the trees' hidden roots its will has laid.

I am frightened sometimes and ask in fear:

Are we so surely friends?
But it lives in calm and it grows still,

and I know not where it strives and whither it will.

It is sweet and bewitching to live so near

one whom one does not know..."

Karin Boye: The Tree (translation into English by David McDuff).