Julie Mehretu

I got back from Denmark a few days ago and now I need to write about my new favorite artist; Julie Mehretu. She's born in Ethiopia, but has lived mostly in the States. At the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, they were showing some of her latest works, in an exhibition called The Black City. It's been quite a while since I got this blown away by an artist. Which is actually mainly because I rarely go to museums even though I know I should.

What I absolutely love about her paintings is that they have and are everything at the same time. There's speed and sleep, chaos and perfectly balanced order. Most of the paintings are really big and you can take a few steps back and watch the whole epic truth of the world and humanity unravel in front of you, past future and present! It's all there, nonsensical architectural plans and maps of airports and cities, visions of a better future, layered with the mingling symbols of countries, roadblocks, tattoos, graffiti and comic books. All the multi-faceted building blocks that construct our individual and national identities scattered and floating i mid-air. Nothing ever goes exactly according to plan, and people are never going to do exactly what you expect them to.


However, if seeing everything, the grand scheme of things, the chaotic truth of life itself, is too much for you, you can just go right up to the paintings and get lost in the extremely skilled, minute details of her work. You could actually just break every one of her paintings down into tiny squares, magnify them and they would totally be able to stand on their own. But instead we get the closest thing I've ever seen to a true illustration of the world.



I've been working hard on finding some good covers to post, but the best one I know is going to have to wait. Because it's so rare and cool...just kidding. I might actually have to buy the album...so much for the information super highway.

Plastic Bertrand- Tout Petite la Planete ( the original)

bob hund- Vår lilla Planet( live) ( the cover)

Nina Hagen- Good Vibrations

(I don't know why I'm posting this one. It's not very good, but it is weird. At least that's something)

Enjoy!