A Lush Vernissage: Davina Stephens @ Warisan Casa
Davina Stephens‘ paintings are a lush celebration of the fecundity of Bali. She expresses not only the fecundity of this tropical world in all its riotous exuberance, she reveals the fecundity that arises at the intersection of Bali with the rest of the world which beholds, adores and consumes it. Clever girl.
Tonight an exhibition of her most recent works opened at Warisan Casa, a furniture- showroom-cum-gallery in Tuban, Bali. The evening was divine, as were many of Davina’s works on the walls. The company was equally divine, divided between old-time Bali veterans, resident young folk born of the latter, and devastatingly beautiful recent arrivals involved in things like real estate and other enterprises. A fine mix, as is Davina’s work.
She has observed many cultures, intimately, from her infancy. And she has diligently studied and mastered a range of techniques, drawing on Japanese, Indonesian, Indian and European ways of image-making. The result is an oeuvre that is constantly evolving, with strengths surfacing and submerging from one exhibition to the next. Davina is an artist whose work bears watching as it matures.
The party was as exuberant as Davina’s imagination and range of expression. We saw a cross-section of the most creative and extravagant characters on the island of Bali. Cheeks kissed included artist Sebastian Mestach (and his Rhodesian Ridgeback), Elisa Grattapaglia (my sister of perpetual mercy), Gianpaolo Nogaro of Warisan, Anita Lococo, Michael Palmieri, Giuseppe Verdacchi, everyone’s favourite wise auntie Roma, Susanna Perini of Biasa, Moon Khoury (editing his latest film shot in Turkey), and dashing painter Van Wierengen in black tie.
The most delicious cheeks kissed however were those of three of the illustrious Vooges-Carpenter family. This is the story of a Mary Quant-esque mum who was a bright young thing of London society in the 70s, and her two fairytale children, Avalon and Allegra. Avalon is the NBA-height, tow-headed weed of a son, who’s a hot snowboarder in the USA and has often been seen with a certain Indonesian movie and TV star of dazzling beauty and smarts. And Allegra is the daughter who’s a rising star of the catwalks, an IMG supermodel with brains and self-possession, one of the rare alarmingly-gorgeous creatures who isn’t Eastern Bloc, and who has a head on her shoulders (which are positioned squarely atop a long torso, which is positioned squarely atop a pair of legs-up-to-here). It’s a miracle. Nice evening, no shortage of beauty, in its manifold forms.
Reality of Shadows, Shadows of Reality
Tonight we attended the delightfully thorny vernissage at Biasa Artspace of an exhibition enigmatically entitled Reality of Shadows, Shadows of Reality. The show marks the highly-charged collision of two artistic talents: Indonesian Ugo Untoro and Italian Filippo Sciascia, both working in Bali. Everyone who is anyone (and then some), packed the gallery and garden, sloshing wine, noshing satay and not paying very much attention to the high voltage current flashing along the wires of this ostensibly collaborative show. Freethinkers and freebooters alike came for the cleavage as much as for the culture.
Stranger II: The Sequel
Bali’s doyen of tropical island style, Made Wijaya has been penning his pithy column, Stranger in Paradise, for decades beyond count. A lush softcover compendium of these outpourings was published in 1979 by Wijaya Words, and since then it’s been an awfully long dry spell for Stranger fans, book-wise.
Well, the cat is out of the proverbial bag. A local wag plied with lashings of bad Australian wine tonight revealed to me that Made’s going to be bound again (as in paperbound). A new compilation of Stranger columns has been lovingly edited by caring hands, and will be on our bedside tables soon. Word has it that the pdfs are done and we could see Stranger in Paradise II: The Sequel (just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water), before the end of the year. So don’t go Christmas shopping for all your relatives yet. Wait until the Stranger comes out of its closet, then buy a carton load of copies to send to your aunties, uncles and cousins who can’t yet understand why you still love Bali.
MOMA vs TOMA: Comparing Prefab Tropical House Concepts
There is buzz aplenty about the prefab housing show at MOMA (Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, 20 July to 20 October). So much buzz that there’s no point in buzzing more here, except where there are elements that touch on tropical design and living. And there are. Among them, the reappearance of Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale amid the historical documentation for the show.
World’s Coolest Houses and We’re Not Talking Arctic Here
The Coolhunter, a wildly-popular design blog, is at this very moment compiling its second book, The World’s Coolest Houses for December release. It’s sure to be a dizzying compendium of highly unusual homes.
Says Bill Tikos (the Coolhunter himself), “The houses we want must think like Zaha Hadid who said ‘I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthly quality.” Photographs may be submitted for consideration to bill@thecoolhunter.net.
Bali’s Own Karma Chameleon
Made Wijaya (neé Michael White) is everyone’s favourite Bali pundit, whose witty column Stranger in Paradise has delighted and confounded generations of Baliphiles. His resumé reads: yachtwreck survivor, tennis coach, pouch poser, garden designer, architect, interior designer, hotelier, carrot-topped-Oscar-Wilde-of-the-tropics, hypocrite auteur mon semblable mon frere. He’s a pen-slinger who’s never at a loss for words, who shoots from the well-padded hip, punches below the belt . . . and apparently can’t keep his sarong below his knees, naughty boy (above right).
This month’s utterly delightful Stranger column (also published in Hello Bali), reveals more than Made’s designer briefs. It exposes publicly what a consummate karma chamelon our Made truly is. In just this one column alone, we see him (left) at a Royal Marsden benefit with Princess Alexandra (mother of James Ogilvy, my St Andrews classmate and founder of the authoritative Luxury Briefing). Here he seems sartorially splendid and scholarly, which is, I must admit, not an affectation, (love the Thomas Pink shirt). Then (centre above), we find him buddy-hugging John Hardy, showing his Australian good on ya mate side. And finally, the worm turns, so to speak, and (right) the boy goes a bit Britney on us, flashing his knickers. I, for one, love it to bits. Made’s always ready to go balls out for Bali.
Accommodation by Design: Which Bali House Can Make the Cut?
It’s a new website for the traveller who puts design excellence on the top of their priority list for holiday accommodation. Ok, so you have the budget to travel where and how you wish. Why should you stay somewhere that is less beautiful than your own homes? Why should you suffer from the mediocre aesthetic experience most five-star luxury resorts serve up? Go to Ultimate Hides.
Properties offered for rent on the site are published masterpiece homes designed by the likes of Tadao Andao, Ken Latona, Justin Long Pike Withers, and Philip Cox.
This elite travel newcomer so far handles properties in Australia, China, Japan and Switzerland. Selective global expansion is certain, but if you want your property listed it must meet Ultimate Hides’ stated criteria: “important architectural design, sustainability, privacy, artistic merits, inspirational virtues, natural environment”. So who in Bali makes the grade? I’m waiting with bated breath to see the first Bali property on Ultimate Hides. To get listed go to their sign-up page.
Who Put the “Boutique” in Batik?
Quarzia did. This boutique-chic little enterprise has been making slinky high art batik fashion in silk for years. Mixing a Marimekko-meets-Peter-Max eye for pattern with a subtle sense of colour and an acute understanding of cut, their clothes have given gorgeousity to the gorgeous-in-the-know of Bali (mostly Italians) for quite some time. Well last night the well-guarded secret went public.
Quarzia was a teensy little boite of a shop on the golden mile of Jalan Oberoi in Seminyak, until last week. Proprietors Marco and Simonetta, a design dream team from Bergamo have broken out from the closed circle of cognoscenti in Bali and are ready to take on the world.
They remodeled and hugely expanded their little shop and now it’s “wow”. Last night was the grand re-opening, and how grand it was, as in grandissimo, as only Bali’s Italian community can manifest. From sunset ’til long after dark the Corso-Como-cruising crowd in attendance at the opening bash sipped Negronis and slinked about in clumps, kissing, ciao-bella-ing and making like it was the day the new collections came in on Via Montenapoleane. One Anglo pundit was heard to exclaim, “It’s so Italian I can’t think straight!” But I think it was the Negronis from the free-flowing streetside bar that befuddled her mind.
Marco and Simonetta are generous by nature, and they warmly welcomed the SMS-invited crowd to their re-opening. Seen pawing the beautifully bias-cut silk batiks were artist Filipo Sciascia, designer-gallerista Susanna of Biasa, Bona Kaya Gaya the Duchessa of Seminyak, archaeologist-extraordinaire Ambra Calo (the blonde Laura Croft of Indonesia), architect Mauro Garavoglia, and everyone’s favourite warm-hearted perpetual convent-girl, Elisa Grattapaglia. Aside from the usual Italo-Indo suspects we caught up with Sophie Digby of The Yak Magazine, modern marquetier Etienne d’Souza, textile and costume designer Simon Marks and throngs of other drop-dead-gorgeous glamourati-Balinisti. There were acres of young silken flesh spread on the front steps to compete with Quarzia’s silk batik fashion; it’s the second generation of Italo-Indos, I think, and watch out for them. The only thing missing was Pino Confessa, the viviacious and congenial Honorary Consul of Italy for Bali (who never misses a good party). Perhaps he was busy with an Italian passport-holder tangled up in a messy Vespa crash?
I promise to post photos of the party as soon as Marco and Simonetta sleep off the Negroni hangovers and send me some. (I hope I get the multi-seamed indigo and ecru skirt as a prize for writing this. Although I would have written just as flattering a review skirt or no skirt. And this post is not nearly so flattering as that skirt will be on me!)
(Here are the photos I promised! Plenty of party pix below the cut.)
Best-Looking Bali Villas Site
Maison Bulle was Pierre Cardin’s kinky bubble house near Cannes where he welcomed the bright young things of Europe during his heyday. Now the name of Cardin’s Cannes crash pad has been recycled by a French expat for her super stylish website showcasing super special rental villas in Bali. There’s a double entendre in the name that only Indonesia expats would understand. White expats here are called bule meaning “albino”, usually an albino cow, which is basically a derogatory term like “nigger”. Western-style houses are known as rumah bule. Drop one “l” from “Bulle”, and there you have it.
Maison Bulle offers a collection of properties that are not your ordinary luxury villas. These are the kind of places one usually finds out about only from close friends. All of the properties are idiosyncratic, charming private homes created by people with a creative bent. Some are rustic and simple, others cushy colonial-style places that recall something out of Somerset Maugham. None are standard-issue, generic luxury rentals, so don’t expect predictability, expect the unexpected. In selecting properties for inclusion Maison Bulle declares, “Character is our selective criteria.”
The site also features pages on Bali’s ne plus ultra options for dining, nightlife, shopping and activities. This is a godsend for we long-term Bali residents who are constantly being asked by friends-of-friends about everything Bali, especially places to stay. It can be a bit tedious. It was exactly this which motivated the creation of Maison Bulle. According to their very well written site:
Maison Bulle was born out of a phone call. A call repeated year after year, always the same:
“Would you know of a house….for friends, friends of friends, relatives coming to Bali for a holiday? Something nice, great, haven like…’
“These requests, of course, did not come unwarranted: a renowned and lasting relationship with the island, a discerning taste for beauty, comfort, great food and hospitality sent them forth. Thus the idea for an open ‘rolodex’ came about… giving easy access to those of you who share our taste and sensibility in your search to experience the perfect holiday.
Bactrian Gold on Tour in America
This is a dazzling travelling exhibition not to be missed. Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul is touring US museums until September of next year. The show includes over 200 pieces dating from 2200 BC to 200 AD, which were thought to have been looted from the National Museum in Kabul during recent years of ongoing conflict in the country. In August 2003 Afghan president Hamid Karzai announced that the treasures had been found in a presidential palace bank vault. Gold ornaments from the Bactrian hoard excavated at Tillya Tepe are the real show-stoppers of the touring treasures. Wear a headscarf when you go to see the exhibition – - not as a gesture of respect for the predominantly Muslim culture of Afghanistan, but to keep your jaw from dropping to the floor.
Find complete information on National Geographic’s special site dedicated to the exhibition, including exhibition dates in Washington DC, San Francisco, Houston and New York.
Images, National Museum of Afghanistan, ©Thierry Ollivier / Musée Guimet