Susi Johnston Bali Blog

Will there be one square inch of Bali left? Here’s a villa resort project designed by DPA Architects, Singapore for Jakarta developer PT Pancaran Kreasi Adiprima.

This multistorey modern complex will soon drop from the sky onto 100 meters of beachfront, bringing 100 more guest rooms and seven chalets, plus clustered residential villas, restaurants and a spa to sleepy Sanur.

Here’s a project on the beach out near Yeh Gangga in Tabanan.

Some interesting design development drawings by Yoka Sara, who is one of the most interesting architects working in Bali. And he’s Balinese.

Good news for textile scholars. The Rijksmuseum has an extraordinary vacancy. They are looking for a textile curator. Full information on the vacancy, in English, here. Application period closes 1 September 2010. Just think off all the beautiful, ancient and important textiles you will have the opportunity to work with. Shown above is a detail from a Coptic textile in the musuem’s collection, ca. 5th to 6th century CE. Image © Rijksmuseum.

Could Kuta possibly get any weirder than it is already? Yes! Here’s a new rubbery-looking condotel called the “Di3va” now almost complete on Jalan Raya Legian. It’s the first business project of a glam three-girl Jakarta music group of the same name (below, as seen on the Di3va hotel home page).

But how did this building design happen? Does anybody remember that kitsch sci-fi horror film, “The Blob“? This is it! In the film, the world was saved when the blob was transported by heli-vac to the arctic where it froze. I guess global warming is real, because the blob has apparently unfrozen and invaded Kuta. Beware! The Blob!

This place touts its proximity to “the glamour nightlife” of Kuta. Well, I for one would not want to come home to the wobbly world of Di3va after imbibing a bit too much at the clubs. Can you imagine anything more sick-making?

We must salute these lawyers in Bangkok, Tilleke & Gibbins, who proudly display their collection of Southeast Asian textiles online and in-office. They even put a “Textile Collection” page on their official website to show off their woven assets. The collection includes this marvelous antique head cover from Cambodia (above), as well as numerous other heritage textiles from Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and Laos.

The firm has garnered significant publicity related to the textile collection, including in-depth articles in the Asia Times and the highly-respected magazine of world carpets and textiles, HALI, which gave them four pages. Naturally, we would love to see law firms and other businesses in Indonesia follow suit.

Among the 149 lots offered at Christie’s South Kensington’s upcoming auction of Indian and Islamic textiles is this striking Egyptian appliqué wall hanging from the 1920s (detail above). The sale includes only two Indonesian textiles, a pair of “lawon” headcloths from Palembang, with the low estimate at a mere ₤1,000 which is well below the market price for good lawon these days.

This project has been on the website of architect Mark de Reus for a couple of years. But there’s no indication whether it’s going to be built or not. The master plan (below) shows a spa resort with 60 rooms, which are tree-housey. Sort of.

De Reus has been the design engine for much of the Kukio development on the Kohala coast in Hawaii. It’s a vast golf community where many  homes have been created by Silicon Valley and Wall Street über rich couples of a certain age.He also did work for Tommy Soeharto’s Pecatu Indah mega-development (see below). Read more…

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). Read more…

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.