Every day bisexual people face resistance towards the notion of their own sexual orientation. Not only do they struggle with homophobia and hostility towards the LGBTQ community, but they must also deal with what is known as bisexual erasure. Bisexual erasure otherwise known as bisexual invisibility is the tendency for non-bisexual identifying people to remove or ignore any evidence of bisexuality throughout history, in modern media and even in daily life. Bisexual erasure ca

On the 5th March The Courtauldian published online the article ‘Artists’ Lives: Speaking of the Kasmin Gallery’. The accompanying illustration for this article included a number of works by the artist Robyn Denny which had been manipulated for inclusion in the illustration. The editorial team would like to unreservedly apologise for our unlicensed use of this artist’s works in a way that was deemed inappropriate by his family. As a result of this situation, The Courtauldian c

Karina Akopyan with her work Big Samovar Orgy at the exhibition opening - photo credit: Bojidar Chkorev Russian artist Karina Akopyan had her first solo exhibition - entitled Martyrs & Matryoshkas - at the Old Truman Brewery last December. Her work is a curious and alluring blend of her strict Russian Orthodox heritage and the escapism of the London fetish scene, and seems to find more similarities between the two themes than it does differences. Karina's work brings up quest

Painting by Elly Stephenson If the ‘male gaze’ is a term used to describe the relationship between male viewer and a female object, surely the ‘female gaze’ can be used to describe the opposite? John Berger in his book and television series ‘Ways of Seeing’  looks at the female nude as an object: “to be naked is to be oneself, to be nude, is to be seen naked by others and yet not be  recognized  as oneself, thus the  nude has to be seen as an object”. He goes on to explain th

When fiction attempts to incorporate art and artists, it can often end badly. Descriptions of the act of creating can read like bad erotica, or pages of too much art historical detail disrupt the flow of the story. Both feel like the author is showing off how much research they have done; they’ve read some Gombrich or have sat in an artist’s studio for a day, hovering at their elbow. So when two books come along that do it right, I rejoice. This is no surprise for readers of

Illustration by Anna Seibæk Torp-Pedersen The current Giselle at the London Coliseum is a revival of Mary Skeaping’s traditional production, restoring the ballet’s 1841 roots and emphasising its Romantic style. The story is based around Giselle, a peasant girl who is romantically betrayed by Albrecht, the aristocrat in disguise. This betrayal leads her to go mad and die of heartbreak in the first act. The second half sees her rise as a ghost, joining the vengeful Willis who f

Illustration by Emily Knapp When I was asked to write an article about Woody Allen for the paper following my showing of the maestro’s ‘Stardust Memories’ at Film Society, I have to confess the task seemed like an alluring yet overtly poisoned chalice. Even the name seems to have become bracketed with those of Mephistopheles and Beetlejuice where if one says them too often, they might just pop out of the ether and corrupt your soul. Of course, Woody Allen isn’t a malevolent g

Black room. Swirling patterns descend from overhead, surrounding, enveloping. Birds of light perch on branches. Suddenly they take off. I chase after them through space. The trails are bathed in light, now purple, now green. Florae emerge where the light trails remain, rays forming and dissolving into complex patterns. Then a great explosion. Gigantic flowers blossom in mid space. I am no longer in the human realm. I am one with the cosmos, at one with birds and flowers. The

Illustration by Anna Seibæk Torp-Pedersen With the recent passing of Richard Adams, an author, father and service man, I wanted to bring to your attention a much loved classic that is often forgotten, Watership Down. Generally considered a dark children’s novel, it tells the tale of a young rabbit, Fiver, and his adventures all through the warren. Fiver has the ability to sense when something terrible is going to happen, so when he worries for the warren’s safety he sets of

Firstly, happy International Women’s Day! Secondly, before you ask, International Men’s Day in on the 19th of November. Today is also the day when the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announce their longlist, which this year comprises of sixteen titles rather than the usual twenty. This is apparently due to the prize organisers deciding that more attention for fewer books would be better, despite the judges arguing for the full twenty titles as the calibre of books by women