The Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama

The Obliteration Room,  The Guardian (Photographies by: Mark Sherwood, Stuart Addelsee and Natasha Harth)

The Tate Modern, in London, is currently hosting a major exhibition from Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. If you happen to be in London (which unfortunately is not my case), it seems to be one of those unmissable things to see.

However, the reason I'm really writing about it, is because of The Obliteration Room, which is part of the main exhibit Look Now, See Forever. Yayoi Kusama had this fantastic idea of making a fun interactive project for the kids. It started with a completely immaculate white room (including furniture and objects) and each person who enters the room is given a sheet of colored stickers dots and is asked to stick them wherever they want. How fun is that?

Books of the week: I want my hat back

I almost bought the book I want my hat back, by Jon Klassen the first time I saw it, around six months ago. It was already considered a bestseller and was on display in almost every bookstores around town. I really liked the illustrations, I thought the story was funny and different, but I wasn't sure my kids were going to like it. 

Last week, when I saw it was still on display at a bookstore I finally decided to give it a go. The book is a success. Both my kids like it and we have read it several times already. The illustrations are very nice, the dialogues are simple but smart and the twisted ending is both amusing and ironic - very different from the perfect-ending-books we usually read. 

Under a different perspective

I found out about the photographer Brent Townshend when I was looking for a picture to illustrate this post. And I fell in love with his work.
Can you recognize some of the places in the pictures above?

Strolling overseas - Bon voyage!

Voyage from Marco Aslan on Vimeo.

I'll be out for the rest of the week. Enjoying good food, wine and some quietness. Here's a short film, shooted and edited by my so talented brother Marco. Enjoy!

Books of the week - Three white books

Three white books: one for F, one for P and one for me

Remember my neighbor? So, my husband and I are going away for a few days. A short trip, just the two of us. The kids are happily staying with their grandparents who are happier than the kids to take care of them; and we are the happiest of all. Thus it's the perfect arrangement.

The other day I saw this box of three white books (I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the brand) and I thought it would be a good idea if each one of us uses the books to tell, mostly through drawings, our little adventures during those days that we weren't together. We decorated the covers of the books this morning and I entitled them our "Carnets de voyage". I don't think that we will fill them all during the next three days and I hope that we will have more occasions to use them.

I haven't left yet, but I'm already dying to read my kids' books (and crossing my fingers hoping that they'll play the game).

Masks for Mardi Gras

Given that today is Mardi Gras and that we are celebrating Carnival this week, we've decided to make some masks. For Christmas, F received the set Mask'Animo, which contains 8 masks to assemble and paint. They are very easy and fun to make. We had made already some in Punta del Este, but we still had two left. So we've finished them today.

Take a look at the video of the making of in Mitik's website. Ours don't look as professional, but the kids had fun making them. This brand is not very commercialized outside France, but once I saw the masks at Moma's store.

Also, instead of painting them, we colored them with these great pastels from Djeco. It was less messy and the gel pastels are smooth and colorful, which makes them very pleasant to color with.

Doug Wheeler - creating absence

Doug Wheeler's exhibition at David Zwirner's gallery

Three words: Don't miss it! (If you are in New York, of course). It goes until February 25th, so you better run. There's a long line, but the wait is totally worth it.

In his new installation, presented at David Zwirner's gallery, the american artist Doug Wheeler plays with lights and space to make us experience an "infinite space". Or like he defines his work, he creates absence.

I can't explain what I saw and felt on Friday. I can describe to you the white wall in which I stood in front for more than 30 minutes. But I can't describe you the sensation of being staring at a white wall for more than 30 minutes and why I stayed all that time in front of it. You would need to try it by yourself.

In the meantime, you can read this good review written by Randy Kennedy for The New York Times, that will definitely give you a better description of Doug Wheeler's work than I would.