A Passage in Time
A short story based on Lucian Freud's Two Irishmen in W11 (1984) Lucian Freud, Two Irishmen in W11, 1984 (Photo: IMMA Collection) A pause followed my question, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. His ring glistened as he closed his fist and shielded his mouth, clearing his throat, the way old men do. After this routine, he collected himself and began to speak. ‘Oh, it’s been years now. I still think about her, most days - every day. It doesn’t take much. A grey sky, a white hous
Resale as the New Retale: The Rise of Vestiare Collective
This past November, Vestiaire Collective have celebrated their tenth anniversary by introducing their first permanent shop on the third floor at Selfridges. The Parisian luxury resale website, set up in 2009 by Fanny Moizant and Sophie Hersan, has become a shopping staple for over nine million high-end thrifters worldwide. The boutique follows on from a successful two-week pop-up last year and has begun by selling a carefully curated edit of two hundred pre-loved garments tha
Past and Future: Gary Numan and Sunn O))) at the Roundhouse
Allow me to ‘blogger' this up a bit and put my cynicism on hold for a second: London spoils an audiophile. Regardless of whether one likes feminist shibari industrial-inspired electropop (my best bootleg description of Brooke Candy’s performance last year), or sage-burning post-techno ambient experimental featuring surreal Yves Tumor spoken word samples (Croatian Amor’s showcase in the first quarter of 2019), or good old-fashioned masked-collective metal-grinding chain-whippi
Osei Bonsu at the Business of Art Society
The Courtauld's Business of Art Society (also known as BoAS) might immediately give the impression that it is a society very focused on the commercial careers of the art history world. BoAS does organise events based on the classically commercial: auction housing, advising and dealership. Yet, alongside this runs a thread of lectures that broaden the whole idea of what the business of art can and does include, like careers in law. Their most recent lecture was given by Osei B
Gettin' There: Chapter Two
Ride or Die: The Inevitability of the Pub Illustration by Izzy White I love Harry Potter. I am fully aware of the risk that I am taking by opening up my very first actual column with such a strong statement but, the truth is, I love Harry Potter with a proud and fierce passion that - much like Hermione Granger’s hair - cannot be tamed. My first encounter with the United Kingdom happened within the pages of the magical world and much of my decision to study in London was calcu
Road to Beijing: Featuring Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye
"Apples and caramel apples are in season!” A statement of seasonal relevance to the fall harvest and cultural practice of coating fruit with an oh-so-delicious gooey bath of melted sugar and cream was used as an analogy for gender and sexual identity by Kyle June Williams. The American stand-up comedian recounts her personal experience of coming out to her mother in her 30s with self-deprecating humour. Her act was one of the two performances included in Jonathan Van Ness’s
Between Poetry and Politics: A Conversation with Le Guo
‘My life and art practice inhabit the dichotomous worlds of conflict and balance, proposing solutions within flux, generating fluidity within the fragmented mind,” Le Guo tells us. ‘I conjure a sense of an internal, intuitive, shifting reality attempting to respond to a physical world.’ I first became interested in Le Guo’s work because of his life experiences, having lived in the interesting times of the late ‘80s in China and since the ‘90s in the UK. According to the artis
The Joker: Film Review
Why the most popular film of the year is more than just another superhero story. The Joker has probably become the most talked about film of this year. Everyone around me has either just seen it, is about to see it, or swears they will never watch it. The profits of the film have already surpassed the billion-dollar mark. What is the reason behind its enormous popularity, and can it be more than the fact it is set in the well-known and beloved DC universe? Illustration by Reb
Giambattista Valli: Bringing Drama to the High Street
H&M has a long track record of collaborations, having worked with nineteen haute couture designers since 2004. This lofty roll call includes the likes of Stella McCartney, Balenciaga and Erdem. The Swedish mega-brand’s latest collection, however, is perhaps the most ambitious to date. Giambattista Valli is not the first person one would associate with the high street. Opulent embroidery, dramatic chiffon ruffles, and a particular preference for theatrics; the designer’s sig
An Interview with Louise O'Kelly, Founder of Block Universe and the DRAF Evening of Performance
"There was this hangover of thinking that performance art had to look certain ways" Images that come to mind when you hear “performance art”: Freddy Prinz Jr. performing “HACKYSACK” in She’s All That, someone in the nude explaining the evils of capitalism, or a number of people inconveniently doing lines of coke in the bathroom before covering themselves in dirt. Volunteering at the David Roberts Art Foundation Evening of Performance enlightened and expanded my view of this e