Hey Suzan!

I am thinking of you with envy today, knowing you're probably sitting out in the Mexican sunshine right this minute, eating tropical fruit and probably getting drunk with your parents. Here in Stockholm it is an unacceptable -5C with snow on the ground. Gruesome!

Anyway, take a look at this Japanese artist, Hiroaki Ohya. I first saw his T-shirt alphabet and was intrigued, as although we come across people doing alphabets out of all sorts of objects on a regular basis, I think this is the first time I've seen one done out of clothing, quite like this. So of course I checked out some of his other stuff and found out that he's a protege of Issey Miyake, doing interesting conceptual fashion-art type projects. Like  his Wizard of Jeans collection – a series of 21 books that transform into clothing when unfolded, title inspired by the Wizard of Oz, of course. Apparently he is "not really interested in the people who wear his clothes" - which isn't that surprising!

Looking forward to having you back next week!

E xx

Hey the M+L+E,

Just a super quick note this week, as I am away on Saturday for a few weeks so super busy. I'm also not feeling too well today. PLUS I have to run in about ten minutes as I have a client coming round for a haircut.

In the spirit of saving time, I am using a blog post that I started ages ago and never finished… Last fall, I saw the image above of the cute little squirrel who shot himself in the head and thought it was very nice (the artist's most famous piece evidently). Read that some dude called Maurizio Cattelan @ Whitechapel gallery. Planned to go check it out. Never did. Now it is over. Boooo yet another exhibition missed. Story of my life.

The first thing that will become apparent about Maurizio Cattelan when you research him is that he is that he is hot and a bit of a style icon (photo of him above). Okay, okay, just joking. Well not really. I'm sure he is a talented artist as well. He must be, I mean really, how good is this: His response to the pressure of exhibiting at the Venice Biennale was to lease his allotted space to an advertising agency, which installed a billboard promoting a new perfume (This piece is called, Working Is a Bad Job, 1993, third from the top).

Other pieces above. They don't really need a book to explain them, which says something about the artist and his work, no?

Okay, gotta get out of here. Read more about him on Wikipedia or whatever!

Cattelan on Wikipedia!

Grrr, I'm late to cut hair...

Suzan xx