The Modern Museum of Art is currently exhibiting at the National Gallery of Victoria until October 7th. It includes a range of works straight from MoMA New York, which houses the most modernist collections of art in the world. My favorites Gaugin, Lichtenstein, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, Duchamp, KAWS, Warhol, Haring, Pollock, Mondrian, Koons, *breathes* and Dali are household names especially when it comes to MoMA. You’ll be able to spot their art here in Melbourne before it gets shipped back home to midtown, Manhattan.
During my trip to the US 4 years ago, I actually stoppped by MoMA by mistake. My family stayed in midtown right in the heart of Times Square, making it convenient for us to walk anywhere. I remembered as soon as we checked in our hotel, we unpacked, napped for 2 hours, ate hash browns at the McDonalds downstairs and headed towards 6th and 5th Avenues, spending the rest of the day exploring nearby hotspots. On the way, we noticed a busy Halal Guys street cart and ordered proper lunch. Given it’s a new york street cart, customer seats don’t exist so we ate our plates of meat on rice while walking towards 6th/5th avenues. It was tough!
3 minutes later a miracle happened, we saw MoMA and it had public seating at the entrance! We happily seated ourselves right there with all the museum goers, chewing away our delicious meat on rice.
That was my first MoMA experience.
At the time of that event, Henri Matisse was headlining a major show at the museum. Now that MoMA is here in Melb it made me a little nostalgic seeing the artworks. Some familiar ones, some not. What I remember the most in MoMA New York was how impressive the store was. It’s hard not to burn the wallet when you have a heap of exclusive books and design-y products right before your eyes and you know you can’t get them anywhere else. Which brings me to this next photo, a KAWS BFF figure that only stocks in MoMA New York and nowhere else. I subscribe to the MoMA site and everytime I get notified of any KAWS product available online, the store crashes. This is just how it rolls when you deal with international fanatics trying to order a freaking toy. No need for that now. It’s here, purchasable in Melbourne!
Kaws is the epitome of modern art. After his Shanghai exhibition and seeing this for sale in Melbourne, I sure hope we get a Kaws exhibition soon.
There is so much buzzing around Melbourne right now, we have Bruno Mars touring for a couple of nights, Ed Sheeran doing the same and even did a short surprise performance this morning in Hosier Lane. KAWS is currently holidaying in Melbourne as it appears on his latest Instagram posts of him visiting the NGV and murals in Brunswick – seriously I thought an artist like him would never come here and now he’s actually here…I wish I bumped into him!! Good stuff Melbourne. On top of all that, the Melbourne Fashion Festival is in town and this year you’ll notice global luxury icons Hermes and Louis Vuitton have quietly made headlines this week. They’re here to let Melbourne in on their craftsmanship secrets and behind the scenes work from their headquarters in France. I was happy to see both and just like the awesome NGV Triennial, these are completely free for the public to see (only for a limited time). I’ll talk a bit about it shortly.
Starting off the Fashion Festival week, I attended a “Fashion and e-commerce in China” breakfast with my business partner as we’re currently in the latter stages of prototyping and testing our sleepwear range. The testing and sampling is the longest process so far due to the fact that Australia imposed strict regulations when it comes to nightwear and selected daywear designs for kids and babies. While this process is still going, we thought it’d be good to at least make use of Fashion Week and go to events like these and share a bit of our Lu & Mon journey. The breakfast was super early – I’m surprised we managed to show up on time to watch the sunrise (literally).
Progressing into the week I visited the Hermes at work exhibition and it’s no surprise why Hermes bags are the most expensive. Every Hermes bag on earth is purely handmade and it takes one year of practice to master the Kelly, a base model bag of Hermes. Any imperfections spotted won’t make it to the shelves, instead, it gets sold at a discounted price to its staffers. Most of the people at Hermes have been there longer than I’ve been alive, and it’s a great opportunity for anyone looking into the leather business. Even a non fashion enthusiast surely anyone can find the beauty in the art of crafting. This exhibition is intimate and compact enough for you to get up close with the craftspeople who work in Hermes Paris. There are a few workstations and each one has it’s own specialty: watchmaker, bagmaker, the glover, the printer etc. Each workbench is accompanied by a translator to assist you with your endless queries while the crafters work.
I wrapped up the week with a visit to the Louis Vuitton Time Capsule Exhibition. It was more of an unplanned visit since my boyfriend and I just wanted to shop around Chadstone. But I remember seeing the ads on Facebook and forgot to add this to the reminders list. We were strolling with our coffee when we saw the LV exhibition in the corner of our eyes.
This exhibition takes you back in time to LV’s first few items right until the 21st century with bolder colours and modern collaborations. As soon as you walk in there’s a bagmaker handsewing her way through the iconic LV monogram leather. Like the Hermes workshop, you can ask her questions and get the translator to translate for you.
This post was actually meant for 2017 but better late than never. I mentioned in my previous post that 2017 was the year of exhibitions for me and it only continues with me getting a call from my lovely friends at the NGV to attend last month’s opening weekend of the NGV TRIENNIAL exhibition. I know exhibitions get better and better every year at the NGV but this is my favorite so far. It’s free, it’s fun and celebrates 100 artists and designers from all over the world – most of which NGV commissioned specifically for this event. They are scattered across the venue so there’s a bit of exercise involved finding the pieces you wanna see on all 3 levels.
Design had evolved naturally, as a passion and a lifestyle beginning at an early age when I made trips back to the motherland, Indonesia, I experienced the surroundings and the lifestyle that was vastly different from what I was used to. I found myself passing by villages where children made their own toys with whatever was left around them; scrap metal, bits of cloth, banana leaves, and even cigarette butts. Despite this, the children were happy and proud with anything they created.
This image struck me and forever inspires me to contribute my skills to places that need it the most. Design helps me make decisions, while art helps me take risks. Both areas reward me with opportunities to create something impactful and everlasting!
The Modern Museum of Art is currently exhibiting at the 
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What I remember the most in MoMA New York was how impressive the store was. It’s hard not to burn the wallet when you have a heap of exclusive books and design-y products right before your eyes and you know you can’t get them anywhere else. Which brings me to this next photo, a 
