Takashi Murakami at Versailles

Pssshhht! The after-party made it bearable, but overall, Loeries sucked balls. The work: marginal, the ceremony: boring, the mood: grouchy. Oh dear. Woulda much preferred checking out Takashi Murakami's amazing exhibition at Versailles.

Feel it - it is here!

Lots of good fun to be had at Cape Town Creative Week. Cool kids, arise!

The James Franco Project

He is a total self-realised, multi-platform over-achiever and thus this article freaked me the heck out. Do read.

Kehinde Wiley for PUMA

Adidas and NIKE are all over the place with fierce, flashy work for the World Cup, but the real, sincere pieces are coming out of PUMA. As a major sponsor for many African teams, they captured what the game is about. You've probably seen their phenomenal, Gnarls Barkley-esque tv commercial, but its their work with decadent, classic New York artist Kehinde Wiley that is doing my head in. I remember seeing Wiley's work in the Art Issue of Vanity Fair years ago and I have been a fan ever since. I just had to buy his laces for PUMA, of course.

And wouldn't it be awesome if an African team made it to the finals?

via astore

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic is a performance artist based in New York. She recently did a performance piece sitting silently in a gallery. Random people sit across from her, staring. A lot of them started crying for no reason at all.

Wikipedia: "From 14 March to 31 May 2010 a major retrospective and performance recreation was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. It was the biggest exhibition of performance art that the MoMA has put on in its history.[19]During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed "The Artist is Present" a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. A support group, "Sitting with Marina" has been established on facebook[20]. In late May, a Twitter account (@marinaschair) was established personifying the chair used for the entirety of her performance".

Mary Sibande

I visited the South African National Gallery last week and got to see one of these amazing pieces called "Sophie" by Mary Sibande - she cast herself to create these domestic godesses and transformed their dresses into these elegant victorian costumes. A far cry from the mopping and dusting reality they live in. Truly moving.

Via Kitsune Noir

Tithi Kutchamuch

My brother is about to start studying Industrial Design in Beijing and I send him inspirational links now and then. I just sent him the link to Tithi Kutchamuch and her amazing body of work which moves somewhere between sentimental pieces of jewelry and everyday pieces. This project called Companion Parrot (2009) is truly stunning and inspired by the memory of household pets that have died.

Do check out the other award-winning pieces on her site. A great mix of Japanese-meets-Scandi inspired pieces.

Skull and Bones

Skulls seem to be making a reappearance again. I have no idea why, but I know that I want one.

Check out these sculptural pieces from Jiri Geller's "Dead Boy" (his Donald Duck inspired series is also very cool) and these beautiful shots in the recent Hedi Slimane diary entries (always a treat).