Enkhuizen

Ahh yes. Another museum, another city. I really spent my autumn break well, I must say. I absolutely love the museum scene here. Can't even describe it but I was so excited and inspired by every little thing I saw today at the exhibitions in Zuiderzee Museum/Enkhuizen. I put the museum and the city as interchangeable terms because the art works extend from within the museum out to the open space. Enkhuizen is itself such a small, cosy, idyllic fishing village. (So in just this one week, I've moved from perfect Den Bosch to modern Rotterdam and to countryside Enkhuizen. AND just in this one week, I've seen some more Viktor & Rolf than I can imagine. In the first place, I never thought I would get to see their actual works. "ohmygawd talk about cool yo!")

It was a great, cold, windy, rainy, but great, day. I tell you, you don't know what windy means until you experience the Dutch wind. Nevertheless, the Dutch pedal on.

Marie & Olie (you know you're in the countryside when the train suddenly stops halfway in the middle of nowhere, with not even a vending machine in sight)

One of the most interesting exhibitions, Silhouettes is a representation of Dutch fishermen's wives who used to look out to the sea, waiting for their husbands to return.

i had a very nice and kinky dream about making out in a fridge-toilet ie. a toilet bowl inside a fridge. heehee!

Rotterdam

Museum Boijmans in Rotterdam is one of the Best museums I've been to. From Studio Wieke Somers clothes rack to Maarten Kolk's visual soil map to Hussein Chalayan's Microgeography to Martin Margiela. It is so much more inspiring to see the actual works than to see them from pictures. Hellooo to some of the greatest and most favorite-st designers in the Art of Fashion exhibition. This exhibition blurs the boundaries between art and fashion (Hussein Chalayan and Viktor & Rolf do this especially well). Christophe Coppens' No References where he dismembers the body, and attaches accessories to each body part, is another really interesting point of view. I'm always annoyed by people who still assume fashion studies to be something superficial. You must be living in orbit town if you haven't noticed the movement from those commercial, capitalistic days to the current multi/inter-disciplinary, highly conceptual times. I cannot be bothered with you, in that case.

Also, I am constantly fascinated by museum spaces. I think that that's where real interior/architecture begins: from the way they divide the space, the attention paid to the display of art works, the toilets (who doesn't love museum toilets?), to the general design of the museum.

Rotterdam is a most un-Dutch city! The reason is because it was bombed during the war and had to be re-built (so of course they wouldn't spend money on cute brick houses). Actually, Rotterdam is not a very pretty city. It is marked by steel, glass and skyscrapers. And a lot of big construction projects. But it has Museum Boijmans, and some of the best architecture in the Netherlands.

Den Bosch

It was on impulse that I decided to travel to Den Bosch. The last time I was there was during Carnival; with the city let loose and crazy people drinking on the streets, I didn't really get a chance to see much of the city. So yesterday I went and walked around for hours. Den Bosch seems to be one of those virtual cities, you know, where everything is so tidy and well-organized, and just perfect. The Palaiskwartier is of modern architecture, typically Dutch ontwerper-style and impressive, whereas the city center is a taste of historic old, very welcoming with the sunlight beaming on engraved walls.













I love taking the train, watching the Dutch landscape turn horizontal in motion, the occasional hiccups of steel bridges interrupting the cows grazing the land. There is always that sense of peace outside the window. I am most nervous in the evenings, when the colour of the sky gradually changes, and I am aware that black is coming but I know not when exactly.

Friday night

my mood swings from over-exhilaration to lethargy. today being one of those days, the most productive thing i did was to unclog the shower drain - which in reality was not productive at all because somehow the ds have some weird draining system. so although i cleared up a bit of really gross matter, i didn't manage to successfully unclog the drain. also i'm eating a bar, sometimes two bars, of chocolate, a day. this week i watched nearly 20 episodes of a hongkong drama. i need to do something good tomorrow, like go to the museum, or the library, or another city. i think one problem is that i don't know enough people here. i have made a few good friends in school but i can't depend on them 24/7. i miss my piano and even the violin. a guitar would be good too. jared was telling me about some 55words fiction thing. so here's mine. it was Thoughtfully written in 5 minutes:

A nondescript and insipid novel. It reminded me of you, when I asked a question, and you answered yes and yes but no, not for sure. Simply put, there was no story behind that face, no kill bill attitude behind the dark coloured suit, and no love even as you took my hands in yours.

Inspiration book

To say the least, I've been very busy these past few weeks. Basically, my first module is called Inspiration Book, and well, the name says it all. I had to make a book that consisted of 50 images and 15 texts (incl. my own) that inspired me; organize chapters, write introduction(s), commentaries, and most of all, come up with a concept. I had all my materials ready and was eager to start designing the book layout. But at the last minute, I decided to throw out my original concept for another one. So I spent the last 4 days re-doing the entire book. I can count the number of hours I slept. Something like 10 hours in 4 days. And only 3 in the last 2 days (none on the last day). I just worked non-stop all the way till yesterday morning at 830am when the deadline was at 920am. I made it 4 mins before the door was closed. I bloody hell almost got knocked down by a car, it's not even funny.

But I love it. My whole mind, my whole life, is absorbed with what I do now. It's a ceaseless process of thinking, learning, and exploring. This is what I've always wanted to do since young; from the very moment I started drawing my own dresses, cutting jie's uniform to make clothes for barbie, and using markers to colour magazine pictures.

Things make sense. The center holds. There is more to be discovered.

I wish I could never be tired, never lose the momentum. And I don't want to fall sick. I want to be hyper bunny again! (Everytime I'm down, I listen to Cat Power)