vivi torontali

Not caught up? Read Episodes 1-24 here.

Welcome to my 25th episode, what a milestone! Yes, I’m aware I haven’t written in over a month– after falling sick twice and being so busy I couldn’t even catch my breath, I lacked the time and energy to write. But I’m back, and I hope you missed me. More importantly, I hope you had a lovely holiday season.

The New Year’s tradition in Denmark is unlike anything I could have expected. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, pop-up stands sell fireworks to the public. However, you’re only allowed to set them off on the evening of December 30th through the end of January 1st, and then it’s banned again. This means that for three days straight, there are fireworks being set off at every street corner and making a loud bang! noise that makes skittish Americans jump. Throughout the evening of December 31st, all I heard were fireworks and police sirens. When midnight hit, the city of Copenhagen was a beautiful sight to behold. From the top of a building, I could see the entire city light up. Back in my small town of Ballerup, bored teenagers would continue to shoot fireworks for a week afterward, leaving litter all over the streets and roads and preventing us from enjoying our hygge and sleep time.

Just before Christmas, my dad received a troubling call from his boss. Because the company is moving to a new studio, they mismanaged their budget and thus needed to let him go. He was still able to work there for another month, although there isn’t much to do. Luckily he was able to spend much of that last month looking for another job, and found a company that does the same work he’s been doing so far, which is not a common line of work. He scored an interview with them, and was hired on the spot. He will be working with a Danish boss and a Hungarian colleague, 37 hours a week, in much better working conditions.

My mom has also found some success in her nail business. I managed to summon two of my colleagues so far to get their nails done for free, and they were both very satisfied with the results. One of them even had a shade of red named after her! My mom has improved so much over the past couple months, we hope that she’ll start getting some paying clients soon. The next step is to decide on a good business name (she’s thinking Nailed it! But that already exists, so please offer some suggestions if you have any), opening social media accounts, and creating a price list. 

While I’ve been too busy to write my bløg, it’s time well spent. I’ve continued to visit museums, including the Museum of Copenhagen, the Natural History Museum, and ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art. The Museum of Copenhagen is a small exhibit of the history of the city, free on Wednesdays. What blew me away was a to-scale 3D model of the entire city. It was lined with buttons that lit up certain landmarks such as the Round Tower and City Hall Square. I, a big fan of geography and 3D models, was impressed with this build, but more impressed with myself and how well I knew the city’s layout. 

The Natural History Museum currently features the best submissions to the Wildlife Photography of the Year competition. Some photos were taken by professional photographers and biologists, but my favorites were taken by children. Here are some of the most impressive works that I saw there:

Lastly, the ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art was my favorite museum of all three. There were two major exhibitions: Monira Al-Qadiri’s Chameleon and Kenneth Rasmussen’s Goddammit. Chameleon is an expo about fossil fuels– the main sight is a series of giant colorful floats representing benzene molecules. There was also a video called “Crude Eye,” displaying a handmade model of a coal plant as if it were a tour of an abandoned, dystopian city. Also included were these floating 3D printed sculptures, replicas of oil drill bits. In all of her different works, I’m blown away by the use of colors, 3D structure and conceptual execution. This has to be one of my favorite exhibitions I’ve ever seen.

Kenneth Rasmussen’s Goddammit is multiple walls full of crazy illustrations, fantastical ceramic sculptures, and a giant pile of knitted plastic taking up the entire room. Over the course of 20 years, Rasmussen would meditatively knit plastic bags from various supermarkets, and thus became this colossal sculpture. It’s weird and wonderful, and makes me wonder about other kinds of crazy things that are kept in random people’s houses. Do you have a closet full of knitted plastic bags? Perhaps something crazier? I’d love to know.

Aside from all the art, the surroundings of the ARKEN museum were incredible. It’s located in Ishøj, about a 20 minute train ride west of Copenhagen Central. It’s located on a beach front with views of the city, and the winter turns it into a fantasy landscape. A ways down the path, there’s even a troll bridge!

Although I haven’t been writing, I’ve been full speed ahead with my artwork. I finished the next big section of my table runner after dedicating some evenings to my favorite hygge activity. I haven’t worked on it for a week or two since, but once my gallery exhibition work is finished, I’m planning on working mostly on that. Speaking of the expo, my Mt. Kilimanjaro illustration is almost done! I hope to finish it by the end of the month. I also started to work on an art book, so I asked a bunch of friends from New Zealand to send me photos of their experiences at these mountains. I got so many gorgeous photos, I can’t wait to put it all together.

Things have been progressing over in my little bubble, and I’m excited to be back in the bløg writing game. While my family recovers from the flu I brought home, we’ll be doing what we always do: entertaining our dear Nudli, watching every title on Hulu, and counting our blessings that we are not experiencing a New England winter this year.