Zoe Smith-Holladay “ The reason why it’s “culture wars” is because that's the terrain that matters. It becomes the proxy for politics because we define our identity, our understanding, our perspective on the world through art and culture.”     Gus Casely-Hayford. Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London © V&A 2019 Last week, I sat down in the V&A South Kensington’s Members Room with Gus Casley-Hayford OBE, Director of the V&A East and former Director of the Sm

Lexie Patterson Should we rise up and give it up for the standing ovation or is it quite frankly time to sit back down?  Jonathan Anderson’s standing ovation: A triumph. (Photo: Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)  I have a fraught relationship with the standing ovation. As someone who will always just rise along with everyone else even if I have absolutely detested the show, I have begun to question this embarrassingly near-uncontrollable social programming. Why do I leap t

Alice Ardern-Norris A reliance on images highlights the tension between digital visibility and the irreplaceable experience of the physical object. Jewellery specialist Kristian Spofforth reflects on this tension, and an optimistic future for art and technology. In an age when the internet too often feeds into vanity, misinformation and endless distraction, UNESCO’s new Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects  offers a glimpse of what our digital world can be when thought,

Swear by my waters all hopes and prayers the pinky promise of young hands the dearest oath of the pious to placate to assure I care not for. May the deceivers drown  The mean-wellers lament. The follow-uppers resent. Swear by my waters it’s only your breath.   I offer you a drink. Cheers to the memories! What memory? Footprints in the sand washed clean by waves. Lifelines swept away in the weave. However large or mundane, I consume, so let troubles wane. Take the drink. Never

Jo Leuenberger Alison Knowles, Big Book , 1966, Photograph taken from torpedobok.no/The-Big-Book-Alison-Knowles Alison Knowles, the luminary artist and founding member of Fluxus, has died. Known perennially as the First Woman of Fluxus, Knowles was the last living original member of Fluxus. She was also the only woman. Despite her artistic and infrastructural necessity to the success of early Fluxus, until recently, Knowles has escaped notice by mainstream art criticism. Inst

Eliza Pritchett Conversations in Couture: What They Wore, What They Said: Frieze Week, London 2025 At the edge of Regent’s Park, a quiet, pensive queue of people moves up the gentle ramp: slow, sludgy, and rich. The sort of crowd you never see on an average London day. The ramp may as well be a red carpet. Judging by the number of Birkins being clutched by women (and men), the fair was in for a profitable weekend. Behind me, a French family of four. I admired twins in matchin