Artist profile: Duane Michals

Duane Michals is an American photographer who I spotted hanging next to Andy Warhol in the museum of modern art in Stockholm. Amazingly Michals came from the same small town in Pennsylvania as Warhol and was born just four years later! I was actually surprised to find out how old Michals is (79). I found his work so modern, or maybe I was brainwashed into thinking his work was newer than it actually was because I was at the museum of modern art. According to my wikipedia research modern art ranges roughly between the 1860s to the 1970s. I thought modern art was more modern, as in now. I wonder what the art period we are in presently is called? Anyways, there is something I found very appealing about Duane Michals.  

Michals studied for a year at New Yorks's Parsons school of designs with plans to become a graphic designer. By chance he discovered he was a talented photographer while on holiday in Russia. His vacation photos became his first exhibition. He never had any formal training as a photographer, had never had his own studio, and has never used strobe lighting. Yet he has ended up shooting for Vouge, The New York Times, publishing over 20 books of his work and having several solo exhibitions. Check out his work. He is cool.

Click on the images for their sources.

My favourite piece from Michals I saw in Stockholm was not actually a photo at all. It was simply a hand written text. I managed to find a copy of it. Imagine a handwritten note of black cursive writing on white paper.

"It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected... For the length of these few sentences, we meet here. It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me."

-Duane Michals

Bad Taste Party

GAH! Best party theme! I think I can speak for many when I say it was super fun to dress in bad taste clothes for Agder Lørdag last week. I couldn't stop cracking up at peoples costumes! We ate homemade pizza, chocolate mousse and were presented by an awesome show, including a dance choreographed by Eirin to "Double Rainbow". Thanks Bildedkunst!

PiZZADEIG!

Only 20 packets of yeast needed

The art class made 26 massive pizzas for the whole school on Saturday night. They needed a little help and I really felt like throwing pizza dough in the air while singing "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie" so I gatecrashed. The event was a "Bad taste party" the twist was that the pizza didn't taste bad at all! They were super delicious! We made pepperoni pizza, taco pizza, vegetarian pizza and Sigrunn's special pizza which had bacon, ham, mushroom, onion, pineapple and cheese. It was epicly good.


For the pizza dough, recipe as written above:
9 kg plain flour
6L water
20 packets of dry yeast
60 dessert spoons/700ml olive oil

Eirin the saucerer

Sigrunn making Sigrunn's special

Julie the dough master

Ane looking sexy while Antonie does all the work

Ingrid loves washing dishes

I LOVE Stockholm

Last weekend I had a spontaneous trip, alone, to Sweden's capital Stockholm. I had zero expectations and I ended up having the most fantastic time. I talked to Australians for the first time in months, visited photography and modern art museums, stayed at an awesome hostel (City Backpackers if you ever visit Stockholm), visited parliament (see previous post) bought a pair of clogs and ate Swedish meatballs ten times better than the ones at IKEA. GO there, it's really cool!

A personal tour of the Swedish Parliament

Roland Utbult he is pretty cool!

At precisely 11.00 am last Friday morning I walked under some neo-Baroque stone arches and through the doors of the Swedish parliament, aka the Riksdag. I shook hands with Roland Utbult, a Christian democrat, who is a newly elected to the legislative assembly of Sweden. He is the friend of the mother of my friend from Folkehøgskole (oh yes social networking at it's best) and on Friday was my tour guide!

Some facts I found interesting:
Sweden is a parliamentary democracy. Parliament is held in the Riksdag building which literally means "parliament". It is built on a small island known as Helgeandsholmen right in the centre of Stockholm. I was surprised how easy it was to assess, and how little security there was in and outside the building. The building is an integrated part of the city; members of the public walk around and through the archways joining the buildings as they walk from one side of the city centre to another. Parliament house in Canberra on the other hand is a huge building ontop of a hill that people have to make an effort to venture to.

Unlike the Australian parliament the Swedish parliament has been a unicameral cameral assembly with 349 members. However just like Australia no single party has the majority of the votes, so politic parties with similar ideas have to work to together. Sweden is known for being one of the most forward and equal countries in the world, so it is quite nice to known that the parliament is made up of 47% women. In Sweden elections take place every 4 years on the second Sunday in September. Why don't we do that in Australia? Have a set date for elections and then there wouldn't be any of that tactical rubbish of setting an election date.

The tour:
Roland showed me the legislative chamber where the debates and voting takes place. When there is a vote a signal is played through out the whole Riksdag building. The members of parliament have exactly six minutes to get to the chamber and vote. Roland said it is a hilarious sight to see over three hundred members of parliaments in suits running through the hallways. He also said that it is common for members of parliament to fall asleep while in the chamber. Apparently during the previous week his party had won a vote just because people from the other parties weren't awake! Scandalous! We also visited some of the offices to the members. Roland has a corner office overlooking the Mynttorget, a public square in the old part of Stockholm. He said it is a popular place for demonstrations and finds it tiring to hear Middle Eastern music and protests all day, ha ha! Then I met one of the youngest members of parliament Andrew Carlson who is only 23! Imagine, being so young and be making decisions for your country. Truly inspiring! To finish we collected our coats, and walked up Stockholm's culture centre where Roland had a meeting about children's rights. We got a man to take our photo and said our goodbyes. It was very memorable and the perfect way to start off my long weekend in Stockholm. Thanks Roland!

The Swedish Parliament building and the river covered in chunks of ice.

The legislative chamber. Roland said that the grey tapestry seen on the wall is made up of 200 different greys.

The beautiful neo-Baroque arches

The bridge/walkway that the members of parliament use when walking from the parliamentary chamber to their offices. They actually walk from one island to another! See the arches begin on the top lefthand side of the picture? The members of parliament walk under the spot I was standing to talk the previous photo.

The door I was looking for. Rikgatan 1.

First thoughts on Stockholm

After quite a messed up journey, I finally arrived in beautiful Stockholm this afternoon. I got on the 7.30 plane from Stavanger to Oslo. Oslo was covered in fog, and the "fog reading machine" (or whatever gadget needed to fly through fog) on our plane was broken. So we had to fly all the way back to Stavanger, then get on a new plane and fly back to Oslo. Lucky for me I had 3 hours transit in Oslo, and my plane from Oslo to Stockholm was also delayed, so I managed to get on my connecting flight. Unfortunately my backpack did not. So now I am crossing my fingers that my bag will arrive later this evening so I can at least have a sleeping bag and some deodorant. Thanks to Sigrunn's mummy I am having a mini tour around the Swedish parliament tomorrow and I want to look and smell respectable. 


Anyways apart from a rocky start I am loving Stockholm. Here are my first observations.

• Stockholm is has a big city feel, which no Norwegian city has.
• Russian style fur hats are big in Stockholm.
• The people are very friendly; they actually say hi when you walk into a shop!
• Swedes are more stylish than Norwegians, by far.
• Swedes make better coffee than Norwegians, and possibly know the difference between a latte and a cappuccino. 
• Nose piercings are so hot right now.

Søt Mormor

This week I have been in Husnes visiting/chilling with my sweet 89 year old grandma (or in Norwegian: mormor) . We watched the nordic ski championships on tv, walked to the shops to buy some local sausages, made sourmilk waffles and upgraded our geography skills with a ole good study of the atlas. Did you know Lybia is much larger than Tunisia? The nature around Husnes is breathtakingly beautiful, and my grandma has the most amazing view out her window; colourful wooden houses scattered over the valley, snowcapped mountains, a glistening fjord. At 89 Mormor is amazing, she totally independent, makes delicious dinners for herself every night, knits socks, makes jams, buns and cakes, and is a crossword master. Cheers to mormor!