MUSEUM GANGSTA!

This was Oslo today, sunny, gorgeous, but with no hint of spring as yet. The temperatures have fallen again, and it was freezing cold as we walked along the piers to the Astrup Fearnley Museum. We - that's Grete, Mira and me - call ourselves the "Museum Gang", because this is what we do every now and again. Either visits to museums or walks with photo sessions incorporated. Afterwards we go to a café, but today Grete had to rush off to another appointment, so Mira and I went to McDonald's.

The Astrup Fearnley Museum houses modern art, and I hadn't been there since it moved to its new location last year. It's beautifully situated now, at the end of a pier, but I'm not too sure about the architecture. (The Italian architect Renzo Piano). It's been criticised for being reminiscent of a factory building, but on the other hand - aren't a lot of modern museums a bit like that?

I quite enjoy modern art - and I mean MODERN as in STRANGE - with the installations, the provocative statements and the weird and sometimes much too simple or even too elaborate exhibits. (One of the security persons actually said to Mira today: "It's kind of hard to see what is art and what isn't.")! Grete - who's an art historian and thus much more learned in this subject than I am, wants art to move her and tell her something innovative or profound. She will look at a piece and say: "And so?" I'm more pragmatic and like the pure craziness of some of it, but at the same time I see what she means.

Olav Christopher Jenssen

Liu Wei - London made of animal skin

Tom Sachs - London Calling - every wooden weapon is named from a song from the Clash album

Grete: "This probably took ten years and two minutes to make. Ten years to think about it."

Paint box installation. Mira is not part of it, but she could have been

The Museum has quite a large collection of Damien Hirst's works. I saw his exhibition at Tate Modern last year and again - I'm fascinated, disgusted, incredulous, shocked and delighted, all at the same time. At the Tate Modern he'd installed a huge glass cube full of maggots and flies (bluebottles), complete with a cow's head that they could feed off. The point probably being - and this is my interpretation - to observe decay and quick lifespans closely. Damien Hirst himself said that it was one of the few works where he'd had absolutely no control - the bluebottles got on with their lives regardless of what the artist wanted.

Again - not part of Damien Hirst's painting

My Damien Hirst umbrella from London!

Divided cow

Damien Hirst

Jeff Koons installation- now THIS one Mira liked!

Jeff Koons - Michael Jackson

Museum Gangsta

Is she part of the art?

Afterwards, when Mira and I was at McDonald's, she told me that she'd felt really nauseous at one point during the museum visit. "Was it when you saw the cow divided in two?" I asked, "Or was it the picture of all the brown flies?" "No, no," she said, "not at all, but I nearly vomited." For a split second the thought struck me - people would have thought it was a work of art! The vomit I mean..... Oooo!

Artistic sweets spread all over the floor - just help yourself!