September 20, 2017
SCARLETT’S LETTERS: The Astonishing Fertility in Peaceful Decay
Scarlett Rouge reports from a barge in the middle of the Venice Biennale....
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October 20, 2014
SCARLETT’S LETTERS: Point to Point
Scarlett and family do Frieze differently, of course. And that drags up all sorts of memories of Hollywood hedonism....
September 29, 2014
SCARLETT’S LETTERS: Tarts! Frocks! Democracy!
Dear James —
I’ve been meaning to write you. There’s so much I’ve wanted to share, but my head has been so topsy-turvy with all these hats I wear: the chef cap coupled with visual-merchandizer visor topped by a filmmaker’s baseball cap. There are days I feel like a circus acrobat juggling while spinning, suspended in air; I stop for a moment’s reflection, amazed that I have the energy to grow so many arms. I am utterly grateful to have so many delicious ingredients to create the sweet-and-spicy dish that is ma vie.
August 6, 2014
SCARLETT’S LETTERS: Phoenix Rising
Dear James —
I’m sharing a comment someone made about my last piece, in which I was being a little hazy about my love life. Mopey Reader wrote:
Firstly, thank you for thinking of me. I do have some questions. Sometimes, if people use a number of metaphors and/or similes, or if they confuse the two the same way many mistakeningly [sic] use the term ironic in place of coincidental, I get confused and miss the main point. Is there a new lover or is this a metaphor for the art fairs? At first I thought the article was about a new person that you met but then it turned out to be about other things so I don’t know if that person is real or not.”
June 19, 2014
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SCARLETT’S LETTERS: 63 Ways to Say I Love You
Dear James —
Have I been MIA? Where have I been and what have I seen, and is it really worthy talking about?
When I tell people about all my travels the refrain is invariably, “Oh, you lead such an exciting life!” But globalization, as far as I’m concerned, simply means longer commutes to work, sprinkled with maladies from recycled air that of course have to blossom when I am on “a vacation” with, yes, my new lover. However, our destination is where he also happens to be working. We barely see each other except between the sheets.
Since we last spoke I went from LA to Paris.
April 21, 2014
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SCARLETT’S LETTERS — Reality Is Just Collage
Dear James —
It’s so nice to be back in La-La-Land, to bask and see my face glow from the sunny rays Angelinos love to hate and Europeans hate to love. Being cheerless here is a crime.
There is a buzz going on in L.A., and it’s not coming from the massive electrical lines that grid the hills to the valleys, or found amongst the flashing lights of a red-carpet calamity. It’s happening in the young and vibrant art scene. Perhaps I am biased — I’m seeing many of my peers come into their own, flourishing into a thought-provoking conceptuality that juggles humor with irony. This is what I love; it’s unique to the creative expression of these bright groves.
March 31, 2014
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SCARLETT’S LETTERS: Dancing in the Garden of Earthly Delights
Dear James —
It’s been brought to my attention recently, or maybe I should say I have recently been reminded, why I don’t drink hard alcohol. You might have seen me — unluckily or luckily, depending on what you fancy — a couple fashion weeks ago at the Yoyo Club in Paris. I drank vodka as if it was spring water from Lourdes, then got on the DJ stage and danced a kind of striptease in my pink ruffled silk Rick Owens dress. The security guard gracefully tried to remove me from my adoring audience,
March 3, 2014
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SCARLETT’S LETTERS: A Secret Homelessness
Dear James —
I am walking. Walking. The runway is endless. Literally, it’s a marathon with only one row of seating, and mass of bodies clustering behind it. We were told to run, twice through, while keeping our cool. I’m wearing what hasn’t been seen before. Slightly afraid the Egyptian-esque tubular hat will fly off my small head. This is not my first time strutting down the catwalk; still, adrenaline kicks in, helps me keep up pace. Adrenaline encourages me. All you got to do is walk. The world’s fashion elite are watching me. Watching as I walk. Flashes from their little snappers.
February 20, 2014
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SCARLETT’S LETTERS: Baliesque
Dear James —
I am on holidays, holidaze, and holy days!
The last time I went on adventure like this was twelve years ago, backpacking though Europe. I think I’ve left my brain and wit back in Paris. I rarely get out of my enchanted bubble or beyond my traveling comfort zone. Yes, I am a bit scared. Okay, let’s be honest: scared shitless.
So, so much has happened here in Bali. So many new vistas, smells and experiences. I’m still absorbing it all, or maybe truer to say is I’m still absorbed in it all and yet still have the distance to depict it.
January 14, 2014
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Scarlett’s Letters: Partying Like a Hun
Dear James —
My Mum, a.k.a. ‘the Hun,’ started throwing parties long before I came along, and for as long as I can remember; literally, my first cognitive memory was somewhere between the age of one and two, or maybe it was near two o’clock in the morning? In any case, my bedroom door was slightly open, the glow and melodic chatter of a happening party seeping through the crack. I was standing, holding onto the edge of my crib, screeching at the top of my lungs, overwhelmed by an urge to join in the festivities and fun. If this event is so well imprinted into my memory bank it’s because I can clearly recall the feeling of fresh pooh in my diaper bouncing along to the rhythm of my discontented feet. (TMI? We’ve all crapped ourselves, darling.)
What I was later told, yet have no recollection of save for in imagination and dreams, was that on nights like these the Hun would gather me and sit my down in front of a VHS of Blade Runner,