Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sunday Everyday



   If you long for leisurely filled days of summer or meeting people and their stories, cruising around Adriatic or Mediterranean Sea is just the thing for you. Forget tourist traps and where you shall eat, because the glories of cruising don’t stop at the views. Cruise liners have daily tours to magical destinations and you can be in a different country each day. Once the ship docks at the location go ashore for site seeing adventures by strolling around or travel on an air conditioned bus. Experience the culture, interesting food and shopping before its time to heading back.
   The ship which is your luxurious home away from home has everything you could need or want. Go to one of the many eating areas and choose from a range of food and desserts. You can then work off the calories on the top decks walking track or in the fitness centre. If you want to relax you can take a swim and lie in the sun, read a good book or go back to your cabin for a nap or a little TV. Their are many things to do on the ship apart from planning your trips ashore, eating, working out, swimming and sunning. So if you find extra time have a look at the many shops on board where products are sold at discount prices. If you feel lucky try out the casino or go to watch just for the experience. If you don't mind heights you could try rock climbing for a great view at the top or keep your feet on the ground for a game of mini golf. Looking for some more entertainment head to one of the theaters where artists will perform and entertain you until the early hours of the morning or dance the night away with the band. Try and have a reasonably early night because you need strength for more fun aboard and ashore the very next day - Bon Voyage.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Fabulous Green Cycling



   The road is full of color and shades, the scent of the season and the beautiful nature make you smile as you peddle on. The sound from the asphalt travels through the air and you look with excitement through your sunglasses as you near your destination. Cycling has inspired me a lot in life, most of which I believe that biking increases your sense of freedom and independence. The effect of biking in our surroundings is tremendous. By encouraging biking we are reducing our impact on the environment and protecting the beautiful places we work and live in everyday.         
   In our modern society, politicians are forcing different bike share programs and investing in bicycle infrastructure and facilities in cities and metro areas. The idea of a bike share program increases the interest of many people in big cities around the world. Not only is it great exercise and fantastic for your health, but it’s also an investment for the future of our planet. You don´t have to be a scientist to understand that biking prevents pollution and reduces waste. It is a great alternative form of transportation as you have bicycle lanes and at the end good parking facilities. Usually goes public transportation hand in hand with bicycle traffic, so good parking facilities at transport hubs encourage you to use your own bike, because your bike ride will help to reduce the impact on the environment and lead to a more sustainable life.  
   In a historic perspective, Horace Dobbins built the first bicycle superhighway from Pasadena to Los Angeles in 1897, when bicycling having a great time of prosperity. A few years later Horace become the Mayor of Pasadena. The bike share program started in Amsterdam as an anarchist project in the 1960´s, you just help yourself with a white second-hand painted bike and then leave it later for someone else to pick up. Today China has the largest bike share program in the world. It´s not necessary to own a new safe bike that functions to perfection in a big city. To participate in a bike share program is easy and a great value for money if you do not have your own bike, or cannot afford to by one.    
   To improving our cycling culture is to take action in your own community and encourage others to get involved with the development of a more relaxed bicycle atmosphere. Many cyclist are eager for security and adopt helmet for a safer ride. Let´s hope for more well designed network of bicycle superhighways and traffic cameras in bicycle lanes during rush hour, so a wider audience can follow the traffic in their smartphone for to know what path to take for the best journey. Your ride should give delight and pleasure, because cycling is more than transportation, it´s poetry. 
   To expanding bicycle lanes and tracks will bring more people back to cycling. Our community is founded on the principal of education and promoting action that last for a very long time. This way we have the privilege of falling in love with the place we live in and enjoy the time we spend there. Biking is providing us with a brighter future and celebrating a green way to get around cities. 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

100 Days of Collection


A collector tells a story, a story about objects and its activities. One of the greatest collectors I know about is architect John Soane and artist Donald Judd. Soane lived before my time, so I don't know so much about him except for his magnificent collection and museum in Lincoln´s Inn Fields. Judd was perhaps the most influential minimal artist of his time. Despite the familiarity of his work, it is often analyzed as an isolated object and not related to its context. I had the opportunity to met Judd in Marfa when I was there on my scholarship at Chinati Foundation. To study Judd´s collection and talk to him about the art of collection was a great experience and gave me an insight in the mind of a collector. Judd let me have full access to his hole collection. I lived with them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, I still think about the great opportunity I had. To walk around in his buildings and to study his marvelous collection as much as I wanted.

Judd was a warm and generous person and made shore you had everything you needed. He came to visit me in my studio when I first arrived at the Chinati Foundation and asked if the table I was working on was to small. I was very happy with my original designed  Judd 2 meter table so we moved onto another subject and I thought nothing more about it. The next day when I went to my studio I found  Judd with his sketches, a carpenter and my new 5 meter table. Judd loved his large ocean like tables and one of his studios had 4 of these. Another one of his great collections and very practical. We took a trip to Mexico to collect an award he was given. After a fantastic award ceremony with the Major we walked around the town while Judd collected ideas and inspiration on Mexican architecture and a few bottles of tequila. Judd was a living collector of memorabilia for a lifetime. Even 20 years after his death everything he touched lives on. He was not only an artist, designer or architect but so much more. I was fortunate to meet Judd in Sweden and offered a scholarship to the Chinati Foundation in Marfa. To watch him build his dream of the Foundation, his home, buildings and ranches was an opportunity of a lifetime. I had access to a living unique man, his dreams, ideas, inspiration and collection while he was creating his Utopia. Now his footprint lives on forever and ever.

As an artist I have explored different ways of seeing and perceiving. I love collections and I hate them as much, specially museum collections that tells a sleepy story of objects of a certain quality that are just accepted into the collection. My art project "100 Days of Collection" tells about memory and objects visually experience over a period of time. Through out of this time I  systematically seek and acquire objects for 100 days. Move them into a particular position to show how diversified and unique everything is. The collections are widely varied from small stones, to insect I have found inside my house. The project reveals an enormous variety of objects within each category common in our daily life. My interest lay more in investigating variations on categories rather than development toward a formal ideal, a critical attitude toward the heritage of museum collections detached from history.