Styrsö summer 2020 in a 1980s abstract print jumpsuit

1980s style print jumpsuit, Made in Denmark, 100% cotton.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2020

It’s brilliant summer weather outdoors along the Swedish west coast. This evening, it’s high winds. A challenge for BBQ-ing, but perfect for sailing.

I haven’t put on any 80s-vibe clothing since the 1980s, and not even watching Stranger Things made me want to don some of Eleven’s more fantastic 80s pop fashion items. But today I enjoyed finding a 1980s abstract print jumpsuit. The 1980s was a decade of kaleidoscopic fashion that is characteristically difficult to create – and wear. Jean Paul Gaultier is one of my favourite designers for exactly that reason, and that in a career that has spanned more than 50 years, Gaultier had consistently created gorgeous kaleidoscopic pieces, haute couture. Gaultier announced that his Jan. 2020 Paris show would be his last [1]. And I will certainly miss his creations. Signature to Gaultier creations are the multispectra use of contrasting-complementing material, textures, colours and clothing shapes.

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Eggshell blue and spring florals in a dress, Easter 2020

In a pencil dress by Zara. Loving the eggshell blue and light florals that reflect spring in this dress. Violet sunglasses are Gucci. The velvet purple belt is a vintage purchase from a second hand boutique here in Tromsø, Northern Norway.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2020

In the early 2000s, I was obsessed with all things fashion and fashionable. From nail polish colours (only Chanel) to skirts, dresses, shoes and bags (only Louis Vuitton), I wanted to know and own the latest. It was a period in my life where I thought next week´s store items were outdated, and there is no such thing as one too many pairs of stilettos. I mean, nude doesn´t go with everything right? Reading some comments to my fashion blog posts from the early 2000s, “bimbotic” didn´t even bother me for the reason, I liked it.

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At Art Café Tromsø: Connections by Ivonne Wilken

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro and Ivonne Wilken, Art Café, Tromsø, Norway 2019

At Art Café with Ivonne Wilken in Tromsø, Norway. Ivonne is a writer and artist. Her sculpture exhibition titled “Connections” is currently on display at Art Café, Richard Withs plass 2, 9008 Tromsø, through the months of August and September 2019.
Text & Photo © Art Café, T. Altintzoglou, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

I met Ivonne Wilken about a year ago, not long after I moved to Tromsø. Born in Emmen, Netherlands, Ivonne studied journalism in Zwolle and anthropology/criminology in Utrecht. She’s a writer, writing in both Dutch and English. You can find her book published in English titled VIS-A-VIS available in Kindle version. She’s also an artist. Her sculpture collection currently on display at Art Café is titled Connections, and it’s a personal exploration and expression of relationships.

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Future world in neon ArtScience Museum Singapore

By the lotus pond at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Text & Photo © K Teng, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2017

I remember sitting across Marina Bayfront in 2010, looking-on at the huge lotus shaped building in construction in what was to be the ArtScience Museum (ASM) at Marina Bay Sands Singapore [1]. In this visit to Singapore, I found myself sitting right beside that very lotus shaped building by its lotus pond. The museum opened in 2011 and currently features 21 gallery spaces that showcases artworks that incorporate science and technology. As permanent installation, ASM has Future World, produced by teamLab, a Japanese founded interdisciplinary art collective headquartered in Tokyo. teamLab produces interactive digital installations exhibited globally, spanning countries from Europe to Asia-Pacific. They have permanent installations located in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. Their permanent installations opened in Singapore at both the National Museum of Singapore and ASM in 2016. In Sep. 2018, their work Au-delà des limites will be on exhibit in Paris, France [2].

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Kuriaki Grouliou wearable art

Kuriaki Grouliou, who is from Athens, Greece, makes wearable art in a myriad of styles, using different materials.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2017

Over dinner, Kuriaki Grouliou mentioned that she made and sold jewellery. She had just arrived together with her family in Sweden from Athens, Greece. My eyes lit at that information. She wondered if I wanted to see what she had made. The resounding answer from my side was, yes! Or, nαί, in Greek. She then pulled out several nondescript boxes. Carefully unlidding them one by one, the boxes spilled a burst of colours in miniature designs. She began showing me a variety items, not just jewellery but cufflinks, hair pieces, headbands, etc. I took my time to go through her hand crafted pieces, marvelling at the exquisite detail all made in less than 2×2 cm of space. I asked her what inspired her to create such beautiful, wearable pieces of art.

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In essence of revealing: Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich 2016

Schloss Nymphenburg 2016

In the style of a Japanese Imari baluster vase with lid ca. 1720, Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich , Germany 2016.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

One of the most torturous things you can do to an academic mind with an eager disposition is suggest threads of thought tangent to the current context of dialogue. This however, is what one experiences when reading Martin Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology [1]. As commentary on Heidegger’s essay on Heidegger’s claim that the essence of technology is itself nothing technical, Mahon O’Brien wrote in footnote in a 2004 conference paper,

“One should be warned however, that Heidegger will not simply introduce his problematic and then present the solution, one has to follow the path which he weaves on the way toward coming to grips with the problem. Following this path is a rather arduous task and involves a significant level of patience and commitment from the reader. A number of thinkers have resisted what they see as this recurring ‘errant’ method in Heidegger’s philosophy, not least, Ernst Tugendhat who dismisses Heidegger’s technique as merely “evocative” and thereby groundless. This is a serious charge but one which Heidegger himself was not unaware of.” [2:1]

For Heidegger, technology is not merely means, but it is a way of revealing, an unfolding from the essence of technology. In quotation below, are some paragraphs from Heidegger’s essay that perhaps caused Tugendhat and others of like mind to label Heidgger’s writings as evocative: Continue reading “In essence of revealing: Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich 2016”

Lenbachhaus, Munich 2016

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Rochelle Feinstein, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany 2016

Geography 1994, Rochelle Feinstein [1], Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany 2016.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

His eyes followed my form from one room to the next, one exhibit to the next. He watched me grab the by-laying catalogue from the clean white benches that invite visitors to sit and contemplate the displays. He watched me, with catalogue in hand, stride back to the painting of a framed white paint splatter. In that moment, he strode across the room covering the distance in but a few long strides between us to stand by a Rochelle Feinstein work that I was contemplating with my back to wall. He pointed to the caption on the wall regarding the framed paint. I read the caption. He smiled. I smiled right back. The photograph shown above was taken right after that encounter with him.

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The latent image

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Auguste Rodin, L’aurore (Camille Claudel) c.1885, Musée Rodin, Paris.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2016

Dionysius the Areopagite

Mystical Theology

Chapter II

How it is necessary to be united with and render praise to Him Who is the cause of all and above all. Unto this Darkness which is beyond Light we pray that we may come, and may attain unto vision through the loss of sight and knowledge, and that in ceasing thus to see or to know we may learn to know that which is beyond all perception and understanding (for this emptying of our faculties is true sight and knowledge), and that we may offer Him that transcends all things the praises of a transcendent hymnody, which we shall do by denying or removing all things that are like as men who, carving a statue out of marble, remove all the impediments that hinder the clear perceptive of the latent image and by this mere removal display the hidden statue itself in its hidden beauty. Continue reading “The latent image”

Heartbeat

The universe exists within the frequency of a heartbeat. Before the ‘big bang’, crossing point zero, after the ‘big bang’. That in that billion years heartbeat, we exist, because of what time allows, is the anomaly. Another heartbeat, another time, another existence, all different from each other, never to be repeated. The power of creativity, of creation itself, lies in this one heartbeat. That too many of humankind do not realise that they too move within this one heartbeat during this one span of time with all other things that currently are, is to miss out on this anomaly. The anomaly that is, life.

Goya geosemiotics in Singapore

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The geosemiotics of Singapore. Towering plastic sculptures in the city’s heartland. Freud, Goya – or both? I would beg to differ on the perspective that Singaporeans have no sense of humour.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2015

They walked as a pair in complete synchrony in rhythm and sway. Finding a seat in the train, they sat comfortably, next to each other. After contemplating the signs hovering above the bright coloured plastic seats of the train for all of three seconds, the older of the two decided to take the seat marked for the disabled. She was after all in the elderly range in the context where she now found herself. The pair gestured animatedly as they talked while they sat for their journey. The younger of the two had at all times in hand a mobile phone where utmost attention was paid. If there was any sort of hierarchy between the pair, it was not much noticeable except that the older seemed to speak much more than the younger. And when the younger was too engrossed with the phone, the older of the two would peer over the younger’s shoulder, inquiring in expression of what it was that made the small screen so interesting to the younger. The younger did not seem to mind this intrusion of space, a normalized behaviour that had by now become an expectation. Continue reading “Goya geosemiotics in Singapore”