This is seriously crazy furniture from certifiably wacky Bali-based artist, Yaari Rom. So if you’re bored of synthetic rattan sectionals and routine teak garden furniture, go see Yaari. Bali is a magnet for creative eccentrics, but few are as prolific and irrepressible as Yaari is. He does furniture, furnishing fabrics, fashion and body painting events (for which he is internationally famous, or more accurately, notorious).

Yaari was buoyed up on the tsunami of psychedelia that washed over California in the 60s and 70s, and has been surfing it ever since. He paints, he appliqués, he dyes, he patchworks, he prints, he parties, and when he shows up at parties in Bali, as he often does, it’s impossible to miss him, bedecked as he is, in his own colourful creations.

It’s nice, though, that Yaari doesn’t feel the need to force his clothing on us . . . it’s ultimately optional. Whatever his fashion can do, his body painting can do even better. But don’t sit on his furniture until the body paint is dry, please. Find Yaari’s universe at Yaari Toya Studio on Jalan Mertanadi in Kerobokan. Your life, and your lounge chairs, will never be the same again.

The Phoenix Art Museum presents an exhibition of Sumatran textiles from the collection of Dr. Thomas J. Hudak, through 4 July 2010. The island of Sumatra is far larger and more diverse than most people might think. It’s five times the size of Great Britain and Ireland combined, and is home to a variety of peoples and cultures, some of them little known and studied. This exhibition offers a representative selection of textiles which reflect the island’s cultural diversity and rich history. Dr. Hudak is a professor of linguistics at Arizona State University, focusing on the languages and literature of Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on Indonesian culture, heritage and identity.

At left is a shoe by Rem Koolhaas and Galahad Clark, from their new collection of footwear for their UK footwear brand, United Nude. At right is a chair by Joris Laarman Lab at the Friedman Benda gallery in New York. Strange. Are black webs the new black? Dezeen blogged both of these yesterday.  BTW, I absolutely love United Nude shoes. And they are very comfortable. And not so terribly expensive.

John Ruddy and Kumi Masumoto (among our most favourite textile dealers), showcase an antique Sumatran prada cloth in their catalog page for the New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show 2010 (on page 85). We’ve been keen on these extremely rare textiles for over a decade, and are delighted whenever one appears in public, which is not often.

These gold-leaf embellished cloths are the showy sisters of the ever popular lawon of Palembang, which have often been compared to Rothko paintings.

While lawon (above) stun with their simplicity and vibrating colour field borders, the prada versions have the same effect, but with a layer of shining, crystalline patterns floating above the surface. It’s akin to viewing a Rothko through a flurry of snowflakes illuminated by torchlight.

John and Kumi were recently in Bali and visited us in our new gallery. We’re always delighted to see them during their travels in Asia, and always equally delighted to see via the web and art magazines, their exquisite taste in selecting textiles to display at shows around the world.

Last June I heard that Bill Gates bought Irma Lake Ranch (above), the property of a dear friend of mine, Roger W. Hollander. I was happy to hear the news. I loved the place, and will never forget the time I spent there. Knowing that it is staying in private hands is somehow heartening. (More info from Huffington Post here.)

Roger bought Irma Lake in the 90s to serve as his private home, and headquarters of his Empire of All Things Extraordinary. The ranch had belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody, and was used to entertain celebrities and heads of state on hunting and nature outings in the mountains and plains near what is now Yellowstone National Park. Cody even had the Burlington Northern Railway build a spur line out to the ranch. Many of the original structures from Cody’s time still survive intact on the 500 acre property. Thanks in part to Roger’s conscientious stewardship of the property during the years he called it home. (You can download a property brochure from it’s listing agent for the sale, here.)

Roger was involved in a terrible car accident a few years ago, while driving down the seven mile mountain drive from Irma Lake Lodge, his spectacularly beautiful, and intensely personal home. In the pre-dawn hours, heading for the Cody airport, he rolled his SUV, and was left in sub-freezing weather, unconscious and upside-down, held in place by his safety belt. Several hours later, he was found by ranchers and rushed to hospital. The head injuries and exposure were so severe, that even a hardy soul like Roger has been unable to recover. He remains in rehabilitative care in Wyoming to this day, and all of his friends are still saddened by Roger’s tragic story.

One of the most intelligent, most intense, most understated, and most interesting people I have ever known, Roger was a passionate and eclectic collector, of many things - - of rare books, photography, 20th century furniture, wine, films, classical music, jazz, Indian textiles, Chinese minority people’s costume, and of great, good friends.

Hardly a day goes by when Roger doesn’t come to mind. As a tiny tribute, I share some images here from three weeks I spent at Irma Lake in 2004. I can’t recall a time I was ever happier, than during those weeks. Roger created a complete world around him, of the best and most intriguing people, thoughts, objects, images, films, music, and natural beauty. His collections are being dispersed to the four winds, some headed for museums, others for private collections, others dismantled and offered at auction. Happily, his extraordinary home in the mountains outside Cody will remain a private home, cared for by someone I believe will respect the spirit of the place. Bill Gates will now step into the shoes of Buffalo Bill (and Roger Hollander after him), in preserving the heritage of Lake Irma.

Buffalo Bill’s private sanctuary cabin. Intact. I had hoped to spend some time in retreat there. With maybe one book, and a good fishing rod.

Roger’s eye for textiles and 20th century modern furniture was impeccable.

The valley where Irma Lake is set - - sublime in all seasons, and always changing.

Clearing in the aspen woods, during a morning walk from the house.

Innately generous, Roger practically forced me to take over the keys to the Land Rover and the gas pump for exploring.

The Buckeroo State . . .

Roger had horses, but they went wild . . . often spotted grazing here and there or rambling the roads.

He dared me to go skinnydipping in Irma Lake in the autumn, when the water was just a whisper above freezing. I never could turn down a dare like that. It snowed the following day.

This guest bedroom had a wealth of native weavings and Pendleton blankets, another had Kenny Scharf’s painting made as a gift to Roger for a landmark birthday, still others had . . . the list is endless, at Lake Irma you lived amid the collections.

Roger loved his kitchen, but I wouldn’t say he was a great chef, despite his great enthusiasm! As everywhere else in the house, the kitchen was chock a block with all manner of unrelated objects and information, all of them extraordinary, but none as extraordinary as Roger himself.

A trickle of guests would visit Lake Irma, not a dull character among them. On this occasion we had Mattiebelle Gittinger, the curator of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. The weekend before it was one of Roger’s old friends from Yale, now one of the world’s leading scholars of Pre-Columbian art. Roger wished more people would visit, his dream was for the house to be a centre of exchange, creativity, scholarship, fellowship, good food . . .

. . . and exceptionally good wine. These were the bottles he opened for just any old evening.

The cellar was deep and diverse . . .

. . . the sommelier’s knowledge unsurpassed . . .

. . . and the corridors downstairs were filled with still-unsorted enological acquisitions . . . amid archival racks of the best of world cinema, and archival chests of drawers filled with meticulously catalogued recorded music . . .

. . . ephemera abounded, as well. Here’s a stuffed bobcat amid boxes of wine beside the deep freeze.

And strewn on every flat surface books bought at auction or online, auction catalogs, and bushels of correspondence.

Roger was loved by society, invited everywhere, but the hurly burly of fêtes and galas never ruffled his feathers in the least. Calm amid the storm, and always easy to engage in an involved conversation on almost any topic you can mention. That’s Roger. Here he is at the Founder’s Ball at the Cody Museum, which we attended together and enjoyed enormously. I never knew Buckeroos could be quite so elegant.  They sure clean up nice.

A toast to life. Footnote: the finest of Rocky Mountain Society raved about my dress by Balinese designer Oka Diputra. Glad I had a stack of his cards in my bag.

And there is Irma Lake Lodge, set on some 500 acres, of woodland, rolling hills, and rocky crags, dotted with trout-filled lakes and lakelets.

On my last day at Irma Lake, I stopped to take this photo on the way up from town. The gravel drive is seven miles long, climbing up into the mountains. It’s painful to see this image. It was taken near the spot where Roger’s car rolled off the road.

And there the story goes cold . . . here’s a view of the old dairy barn, converted into a guest house.

And on the terrace in front of the house, a chilled lounger . . . mute and monochromatic and still . . .

Finally, the last photograph I took during this visit to Irma Lake. I saw this stone standing alone on the crest of a small ridge beside the road up to the house. Now when I look at it, I see a mute monument, with no epitaph, as the man still lives but is now far away from us, as mysterious and solitary as this stone by the roadside on an open ridge above the autumn grasslands.

Contemporary textile arts don’t get any better than this. Check out Weavers Studio in Kolkata for kantha cloth, felt, applique, embroidery, hand prints, kalamkari, zardozi, chikanwork, pintucks, pleats, shibori, and more. This is much more than a production house, it’s a textile study and development centre, devoted to fine handwork and learning from the legacy of world textile traditions.

They have more than 20,000 wooden blocks, 1000 textile reference books, 500 old and rare textiles from India and abroad, plus an R&D team that has delved into many textile topics, including Indian trade textiles, khadi cloth, and African Jamdani indigo dyeing.

The variety of cloths available from this organisation is amazing, and inspirations abound on their website. For fashion. For furnishings. For fine art. For everyday life. For exceptional events. Wow. Hats off to Weavers Studio.

Afficionados of ancient ornament, take note. In the middle of last year, a hobbyist who enjoys combing the countryside with a metal detector discovered the most important early medieval gold hoard ever.

The hoard’s website includes 659 photos of the find and news about its disposition and plans for future exhibition. The finds have been exhibited publicly in Staffordshire already, and selections are displayed at the British Museum.

Textilians take note. There’s a spiffy article on the Laharia Turbans of Rajasthan in the catalog for the Arts of Pacific Asia Show (part of Asia Week New York 2010).

Laharia turban cloths are not only stunning when worn. When displayed flat they have the punch of op art paintings.

Should you wish to try wearing one, refer to the visual hints for DIY in the article (above). Dashing.

Nice one-page piece in Travel+Leisure magazine about Bruno and I, and our galleries in Bali, ICON Asian Arts and Macan Tidur. Written by Jennifer Chen, who I very much enjoyed talking with back in December. We just heard she’s leaving the magazine to pursue other writing opportunities, incidentally.

(Click through for larger, sharper image.)

Be at KuDeTa on Friday 26 February for a no-jive, all-live, art attack. Two UK artists painting live before your eyes to the tune of globally-regrooved hip hop, morphed tropical urban house and deep subterranean sounds spun by six (count ‘em, six) DJs. This art extravaganza isn’t happening just for YOUR benefit. It’s a benefit for the I’m An Angel charity, which does good in great measure for local people, places and problems.

Art. Action. Aural enzymes. Angelic altruism. All together. In an eight hour marathon from noon to eight. Just remember, it’s been HOT in Bali lately (in more ways than one), so put on something skimpy and chilly, then plan to spend the whole day until after sunset at KuDeTa this Friday.

The artists? Jo Peel and David Walker, a pair of gloriously gritty Brits visiting Bali (that’s David below, live-painting with fellow street art superstar, Hush). We’re really keen on Jo at the moment, who renders the tangle of urban NOW (wires and all, see above) into lyrical rhythms of line, colour and texture. She’s been painting in Bali for a few weeks, and (no surprise) is finding the island’s interleaved layers of intensity inspirational.

Really, you don’t want to miss this. It’s not your ordinary day sweating in the sun, it’s a full-on art-attack, and that doesn’t happen often on Bali, the island of a thousand lukewarm welcome drinks with free legong. I’ll be there. My office and gallery are 50 meters away, so how could I not?!? On top of that, Jo shares a studio in the UK with my bestest university friend and housemate Tom Hallifax (we read Art History together at St Andrews in the 80s), so what’s not to love about this six-degrees-of-unseparation, unprecedented, charity art attack?