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Hanna Hedman

It has been mentioned that hiding some of my talents isn’t appreciated, so I thought I’d tell you about at least one of them since it also includes my friend Hanna Hedman. Back in the days when I used to hang about with Kim Gordon, we did some very cool gigs that were also recorded. Kim off course had a thing for singing, but the rest of us switched instruments whenever. Once, we hooked up with my friends Josephine Günther, Lina Torsvall, jewlery desinger Hanna Hedman, and ceramic crafts designer Joanna Günther. That was when I for the first time tried to play the drums, Roland D50 is where I’m usually at home. We called ourselves The Random Slippers, which kinda fitted our sound like a glove. I think Hanna did the chorus on that recording, but if I remember correctly she was afraid of the mic. That explains the few moments of sound she manages to bless our ears with on this one.

Now it's time to cut to the chase, I want tell you more about this sweet friend mine, and her wickedly divine work. Check this out, here are some of my favourites from different collections she has made last two or three years. Metal sheets from silver, steal and powder coated copper with hand drilled holes, syntetic fibers, pearls and paint. Her first collection Enough Tears To Cry For Two was heartbreaking with its dripping darkness and thewy anguish. I love it so much! It was followed by What You Tell Is Not Always What You Have Experienced, which was inspired by how stories change depending on the narrator and how a person’s personality can consist of as much fantasy as realism. Its contrasts between humour and melancholy is brilliant I think. Isn't that fish necklace the best ever? Hanna and I met for the first time in Amsterdam two years ago, when we and some other designers were invited to show our work to celebrate the 25’th aniversary of the fashion fair Modefabriek. Hanna strikes you as pretty calm at first, but as it turns out she is also very cool and fast. Hanna is the girl that within only a few weeks: impulsively went to New Zealand, knocked out both her front teeth, was robbed at the supermarket, dropped out of school and came back, and made one of the most scaringly depressive and fantastic jewlery collections ever.

Her work is very well appreciated all over the world and it feels like she’s always out travelling. A few weeks ago she went to Mexico to attend the Gray Area Gris symposium in Mexico City, recently showed at the art fair Collect in London, did a single show at Soda in Istanbul, and all kinds of other exhibitions at galleries in Sweden, USA, Netherlands, Germany and Poland, Japan and New Zealand.

I very much hope to work with her soon, we have talked about it before, but now I have a project in mind that she hopefully can't resist. (Note how I consciously try to influence her answer by going public with my wish.) Have fun in Japan, Hanna, and let's talk when you get back! Posted by ANNA ÖSTERLUND at 1:55 PM No comments: Links to this post Labels: good stuff, Hanna Hedman, Playmates, Youtube clips

 


The Paraphrase Project The Paraphrase project is our latest thing that we have going on. It started out when André asked me and Truls to do our own version of the Leibowitz photo of John and Yoko earlier this year. Two days before we were gonna do it, I saw this fashion video that made me throw up. You know the kind with the young, sexy, naive model semi-porning around in an apartment,implying that she’s getting high even though she’s just smoking plain cigarettes and drinking foxy cocktails.
And hey! make sure she doesn’t show more than an occasional nipple, cause we don’t wanna risk upsetting anyone!

So I said: -let’s make a video of us taking that photo! And let’s do it in the total opposite way from that video we just saw, let’s just keep it raw, simple and true. I think the whole session took less than an hour, and the same with the editing. Later on that day, when we spoke on the phone, we chattered and cheered from exhilaration and came to the conclusion that this was just the beginning of something unstoppable, so we immediately started planning on which photos to do next. So far we’ve made these three paraphrases, and we have seven more to go. I’m loving every minute of it!

Posted by ANNA ÖSTERLUND at 12:48 PM 1 comment: Links to this post Labels: About Ravishing Mad, behind the set, Paraphrase project, Photo: André De Loisted, Playmates, Youtube clips


Mårten Charlie Stener Damgaard Mårten lives his life as it were a film. He comes from the world metropole of Sorø in Denmark, which has the staggering population of 7743 people, but don’t let that fool you. He is the RM maestro himself, has a heart of gold, and is one of my dearest friends.

This is the guy with the many alter egos. He differs between his names Mårten, and Charlie, according to mood, and you also might know him as my ‘in house model’, ‘meconium’ or ‘Charlie Campari’. For me, he goes under the name Mårten, and I know him in English...because my Danish ear sucks.

(Photo above: Mårten in Ravishing Mad AW-10 collection,
photo by André de Loisted) Music is his tool, but he’s got some thrilling fashion skills too. He’s played in all kinds of bands from sad heavy metal, insanely cool indie rock, spasmic electro, and much more. His latest project, Sir Charles, is most of the time just him and his tiny guitar in a very cool and unpolished setting with honest lyrics and a pinch of humour and irony. Like honey with salt. Mårten has recently started sketching on some crazy clothes too, and is filled with ideas that we’re incorporating into my latest collection. In the end of August we’re gonna perform together in Stockholm.

He also wrote and performed the song ‘I luv horse’, that we used in the Justify My Love paraphrase video. We thought it’d be such a fun and unexpected contrast to combine that video where I’m smoking for the first time in my life, with a song that is about such heavy shit. The first time I heard this song, Mårten was sitting on the floor of my messy working space at 2 in the morning playing it, while I was sewing. There is something about working late at night that I’ve always loved, and this occasion was so very special to me.

(Photo above: Mårten in Ravishing Mad clothes,
photo by Mårten Svemark for Newspaper City Malmö/Lund) (Photo above: Mårten and Ida Annie Kyllerman modelling in Ravishing Mad jeans,
photo by me Anna Österlund) So here it comes: a fun little video featuring me in a first-time-smoking-session, accompanied by Mårten’s music, André’s photo and Ravishing Mad clothes. It’s the third out of ten paraphrases of known photographies that we’re making this Spring and Summer. This one is referring to the Madonna album cover Justify My Love and we filmed it at the Victoria Theatre in Malmö just a month ago.

Oh, maybe I should post the photo André took of me first. Yeah, it's the one to the right. This photo is what the fuss is all about in the video. I mean, I thought it kinda odd, unmotivated and fake to put a cig into my mouth just for a photo. If I was gonna do it, it had to be the real way, and then you get to laugh at me!

(Photo to the right: Me in a Madonna paraphrase, photo by André de Loisted)

Posted by ANNA ÖSTERLUND at 1:10 AM No comments: Links to this post Labels: charlie campari, good stuff, Mårten Charlie Stener Damgaard, meconium, Paraphrase project, Photo: André De Loisted, Playmates, sir charles, Youtube clips
 


Posted by ANNA ÖSTERLUND at 1:00 AM 1 comment: Links to this post 


Truls Bråhammar I fell in love with Truls the first time I ever layed eyes on him. That was back in 1998. He rarely spoke and was just being gorgeous and mysterious. I watched him take his shirt off and he had some long dark marks all over his back as if he had been whipped. It fascinated me. As it turned out, he was a climber and just burnt his back on the rope a few days earlier, but it didn’t really matter. I was already hooked.

We have now been together for 12 years and run Ravishing Mad together. He was the one convincing me to quit studying political science and start being creative instead. Truls is probably the happiest, most positive, calm, secure and loving person I have ever met. He keeps me grounded and takes the drama out of the blacks and the whites in my mood.

It’s kinda annoying that he’s so good at almost anything he tries out for the first time. Among his extraordinary skills really worth mentioning are: carpenting, computer programming, flamenco dancing, playing the guitar and singing, writing very cool texts, fishing, skiing, climbing, solving any technical problems concerning an industrial sewing machine, and not to forget his excellent cooking skills. He also says things like: “it’s the work of a fucking genious!” when he diggs something I made. Well, he knows how to keep the wifey happy!
Posted by ANNA ÖSTERLUND at 11:42 PM 1 comment: Links to this post Labels: good stuff, Playmates, swinging mood disorder, Truls Bråhammar
