yet another catch up!

this is another crazy catch up session, just so y'all know i haven't died yet.

since the last time i blogged, i went trick or treating (with sam, my son), caught the linkin park concert (with sam), then flew to beijing, then new york, miami, london and, then, again, new york and miami. i just got back friday and woke up at 4 am this morning, giving me a small window of blogging time.

miami was incredible. a real social circus. i stayed with the owner and host of design miami basel, the companion show to art basel miami. the first night, we had dinner with russell simmons, then the next night, there was a massive party, where i met pharrell williams, terry richardson, and loads of other superstars in different industries.

the next night was no less intense. i was the guest of prosper and martine assouline at their dinner to launch "The value of art". (assouline is a famous lifestyle book publisher based in ny and paris.) jeffrey deitch, glenn o'brien and simon de prury were all there and i was lucky enough to sit right next to martine and prosper, who were relieved that i spoke french and didn't want to talk about the weather. i ducked out to party hard with my college friend from ny at midnight. the artforum party was down-at-heel in a cool, artistic, "i don't give a fuck about hedge fund guys" way and the music was all 80s and really loud, giving me a breather from the nonstop networking.

i almost died of combined jetlag and pneumonia on this trip which was a non-stop party-networking trip for business reasons i don't need to explain here, but, GAWD, i'm still reeling from it. you can literally smell the money burning in the air during that week in miami.

NOW, i understand what the big fuss is about!

on the plus side: attending the shows (there are about 10-20 important ones including satellite exhibitions) gave me major insight into the direction of contemporary art and lots of food for thought and new creative ideas.

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now i'm home for xmas, trying to buy xmas presents and the tree before friday, because i have run up to beijing on the weekend!

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very happy to see my really close friend dan pak settled back into hk. we have jointly decided that our email threads are actually much more entertaining and vitriolic than the shite we write on our blogs. in the case, you might see us posting our dialogue online HERE next! ha! for some reason, i hold back when i'm writing to absolutely no one, whereas with dan, i let it rip without any apologies for my hideous misanthropic insights into man and civilization.

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we have a new designer at shanghai tang and that's really exciting. his name is joseph li and he's a genius. he will give birth to his first collection this fall and i'm seeing the first pieces come out now, which is really exciting, because it's a really fresh and sophisticated direction we're moving in. i won't disclose more except to say that i'm proud that i could engineer this shift during my time at the brand.

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i'm opening an art gallery next year, and have begun to take concrete measures to sign up artists and lay the groundwork. although i planned to do it in beijing, i have now concluded that,  since i live here (hk), it doesn't make sense to do it elsewhere. one of the main focuses of the gallery will be photography....

the main reason i've decided to go into this industry is because i love talking to and spending time with artists (fine art artists), who, in my experience, are among the only people i've ever met who even know what i'm saying. (maybe that's simply because i live in hk? generally, no one knows what the f--- i'm saying except for my son, my ex-husband and dan pak. no kidding) plus, i think that virtually all the galleries in hk are total crap and do a disservice to the art scene with the exception of han art and 10 chancery lane. hk people treat art galleries like department stores and hk galleries feed back to the hk public what they think they want to see, which creates a vicious, negatively reinforcing cycle.

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enough for today. i'm still mentally bleary from waking up too early...