the glass house

I was on LV ban until Thursday night, when my SA friend surprised me with this limited piece she had been keeping for me. And I could not resist breaking the ban for this. After all, history repeats itself.

Last time I was on a self-imposed ban, my last purchase was the Louis Vuitton book collectible The Birth of Modern Luxury. This time around, I’m truly entering my ban state once again with Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture – a large-format volume that is a definitive work on Louis Vuitton’s contemporary fashion, art, architecture, design and photography.

Apart from the critical essays written by Jill Gasparina (Art: 33 Colors), Olivier Saillard (Fashion: The Empire of Signs) and Taro Igarashi (Architecture: Learning from Louis Vuitton), the title chronicles Louis Vuitton’s esteemed collaborations with an elite group of artists, architects, designers and photographers, indexed alphabetically for easy reference. The book is filled with a lot of arresting images that represent Marc Jacobs’ time at the helm of Louis Vuitton.

It is extra special for me because the Oslo boutique is photographed (shown above with Olafur Eliasson’s Eye See You installation for Christmas 2006), where many of my LV dreams have been fulfilled. This deluxe limited edition book is designed by Takashi Murakami. It comes with an acrylic slipcase bearing the Damier pattern that’s also found in architectural details in several Louis Vuitton stores around the world. It also features Murakami’s “LV with Hands” on the cover and multicolor bookmarks.

Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture is available in Louis Vuitton stores worldwide and at www.louisvuitton.com. £90.

the natriot act, nate lowman

Mary-Kate Olsen was in Oslo 23rd of September for the opening of her boyfriend’s very first independent museum exhibition.

Oslo, Norway – The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art has the honour and privilege to be the first museum to present a solo exhibition of works by Nate Lowman (b. 1979). Lowman has, in the course of the last few years, distinguished himself as a significant international artist.

The art of Nate Lowman can best be described as personal narratives based on his reflections about the American art world in particular, and consumer and media society more generally. He is continuously rearranging the visual signifiers he encounters. Gathering raw materials for his art from the news, popular media and art history, he reconditions them through his own reading, thoughts and feelings. Speaking in first person, he invokes real-life stories and offers his own opinion about the people and events within them; fragments from the media and art historical references become equal constructional elements. As all narratives relate to time, notions of time and duration are thus major elements within Lowman’s work. The inclusion of imagery from different periods and contexts in many of his works open up nonlinear sequences of reading, inviting viewers’ to form an individual sense of temporality.

For this exhibition we are including significant early works such as ’The Young and the Restless’ (2004), ‘Peace Love O.J.’ (2005) and ‘Oil Rig Series’ (2005), as well as more recent works like ‘Smiley Face’ (2009) and ‘Act Natural’ (2009). A number of the works have not previously been exhibited. The selection includes sculpture, installations and wall collages.  Curators: Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hanne Beate Ueland and Grete Årbu.

Gonzo, 2009

Higher Powered, 2005

Lump Sum, 2009

The Natriot Act runs until 3rd January 2010 at the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo.

Artworks photo credit: the artist and Maccarone NYC

Nate & Mary-Kate photo credit: Liam McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com/Sipa Press/0811032049

winner announced: the new deichman library at bjørvika

HAV Eiendom announced today the winners of the competition for the new Munch + Stenersen Museum and the new Deichman Library, both to occupy spaces beside the Oslo Opera House at the harbour district of Bjørvika in Oslo.

The design for the new Deichman Library was won by the Norwegian Lund Hagem Arkitekter and Atelier Oslo with their entry Diagonale.

The motto Diagonale seems to refer to both the sight line requirement, which has a distinct influence of the shape of the library, and the diagonal street that divides the A9 plot to give visual as well as functional access from the Akerselva Common to the Opera. The urban and commercial concept is very good.

Diagonale has a very good solution for the library. It neither has too many nor too few floors, and organizes the library around a beautifully shaped inner space that spans the building from roof to ground level. Diagonale consistently received the best rating from the librarians in the jury, and the general acclaim of the rest of the jury. Architecturally this is a proposal with great potential, while at the same time respectful of the position of the Opera.

Diagonale scored best on environmental issues of all entries. It can meet energy objectives well below official requirements and is well ahead of all others. The outer skin only has 20% windows. 80% is clad with a translucent nano-gel wall with very strong insulation qualities. This allows the library to be not only innovative in terms of library solutions, but also in technical matters. Future reductions of emissions and energy use will depend strongly on innovation. The jury wants to emphasize this.

 

With the newly opened Norwegian Opera House, the projected future Oslo Central Station (Oslo S) and these two new projects, Bjørvika is slowly changing the face of the Norwegian capital.

winner announced: the new munch area at bjørvika

HAV Eiendom announced today the winners of the competition for the new Munch + Stenersen Museum and the new Deichman Library, both to occupy spaces beside the Oslo Opera House at the harbour district of Bjørvika in Oslo.

The design for the new Munch area was won by the Spanish Herreros Arquitectos with their entry Lambda. The winner is chosen by a unanimous jury for being a complete and fully recommendable museum project that creates great potential for recreational and urban development.

Here’s the jury’s take on the winning entry.

Lambda creates a generous invitation both to the Museum and to the public access of the area in general. The location of the Museum on Paulsenkaia leaves the area south of the Opera open to a public park and recreational landmark in the middle of the bay overlooking the fjord, in close contact both with the Opera and the Museum. The project strengthens the river mouth, opens the landscape and gives public access to both sides of the river all the way out to the fjord. The position between Akerselva and Stasjonsallmenningen connects the Museum to the commons as well as to the harbour promenade and fixes the urban vision of the area as a whole. The main entrance facing north connects the building to the urban fabric and city centre.

The choice of location and the urban form of the building makes Lambda stand out as a beautiful contemporary museum worthy of displaying the important combined collections in the centre of Bjørvika at the edge of the fjord. The building adds to the silhouette of the Opera with a slight verticality, choosing a posture which shows a double attention towards the fjord and the city. The new building communicates with the Opera on the same level of importance and opens the new reading of the landscape and introduce a new type of public space and openness in the area.

The concept of the Museum is flexible and invites to create new relationships between the two institutions. Separate exhibition areas connected with a generous vertical communication makes it easy to compose and change different exhibitions. Both Munch and Stenersen can be expressed and redefined inside as well as outside the building.

It is light and translucent in contrast to the opera. It is displaying the movement of people in the facade in contrast to the people walking on the roof of the Opera. The Museum talks with both sides of the bay by placing the exhibition and working space east and communication and public flows facing west.

Lambda makes a public vertical statement that is more powerful than the commercial high-rise zone to the north. It is a statement of art and public accessibility to the fjord. The building is elegant and iconic in its simplicity and will be a light tower in the fjord introducing an amazing place for people enjoying the unique landscape of Oslo.

graffiti please, louis!

I went to the Oslo boutique yesterday to try the Graffiti piece I had my SA put aside for me. When I tried it on, I didn’t feel too good about it. I don’t know. Maybe it was the color of my shirt. It was too much. I felt it’s too out there.

Until I got home. Until I sat at my office the whole day today looking at pics of this limited piece on tPF and on LV’s website. Until it gave me the disturbia that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Couldn’t keep me glued on my seat. So when the clock struck half past four, I rushed out of the building, took the first bus and went straight to Louis Vuitton.

Approaching the first SA I saw.

“I changed my mind. I’m getting the Pareo.”

Thank god I returned to get it. I love love LVoe it! While it’s actually a sarong (yes, a sarong!) it can be worn as a scarf that’s great for springtime and cool summer days. Finally, I’ve gotten a piece off the Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse Graffiti 2009 collection. This should do until something else gives me yet another disturbia. Hahaha!

Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse Monogram Graffiti Pareo

A tribute to New York artist Stephen Sprouse, who collaborated with Marc Jacobs on Louis Vuitton’s iconic 2001 graffiti collection, this lightweight sarong is splashed with bold graffiti signatures.Size: 150 x 80 cm / 59,1 x 31,5 inches. 100% cotton. Louis Vuitton graffiti signature designed by Stephen Sprouse. £200. www.louisvuitton.com.

Update: I figured a way to wear the Pareo the way I like it. That’s extra 2,386 points for the Pareo. Woohoo!