Culture

Must theatre be so dire? Thoughts on the “unworthy scaffold”

If 'art est celare artem' (true art is to conceal art), then theatre is pretty poor art. You ain't fooling me into thinking that's a storm.

Fashion trends: The illusion of choice

Our fashion choices emphasise how our individual styles are limited by the available market, and what fashion magazines and brands declare as ‘in style’.

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into...

The legacy of the caricature

That the ‘In Memoriam’ section of the 2026 Academy Awards is going to be a serious tear-jerker was solidified by the passing of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry over two consecutive days.

Flagrant Exhibitionism: The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition

Running since 1769, the Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open-submission art show. From film to photography and prints to paintings (and everything in between) the show brings together the world’s leading artists of all mediums, both household names and total unknowns.

Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life

Olafur Eliasson’s “In real life”, which is on until 5th January 2020, is a truly must-see exhibition at the Tate Modern. All forty of this Danish-Islandic...

Spectacle of Suffering

Representations of violence and torture used to be an integral part of enforcing the social order - but in a world of uncensored live streams and graphic media content, has our attitude to atrocity really progressed - or does it remain an unacknowledged dark obsession of mankind?

Interview: ‘How To Use A Washing Machine’

In the cosy nook of an Oxford hostelry is where Georgie Botham and Joe Davies brainstormed into existence ‘How To Use A Washing Machine’. Little did they know, in Oxford in 2018, that their newly penned and composed musical would also then progress to a national tour. Imogen Harter-Jones interviews them to find out about their experience.

To Infinitears and Beyond

"I realised I’d entirely missed the point of the franchise: it’s not about the owners, it’s about the toys." Chloe Whitehead was (unexpectedly) moved to tears by Pixar's latest offering.

“Oh, what a beautiful claw!”

Why male designers are fascinated by 'deformed' women

A Literary History of the F**kboy

The narrative of resistance and domination in relationships has been the recourse of storytellers since pre-Christian times, with the same lurid, visceral quality evident in Greek myth as in the modern trend of disturbingly violent porn. Yet these primal, animalistic tropes of female subjugation now exist in a ‘civilised’ society, whose vernacular is one of #TimesUp, sex positivity and high-street feminism.

‘The Lost Properties of Love’ by Sophie Ratcliffe

'treads a fine line between a deeply personal memoir [...] and an academic exploration'

Time to tilt the lens – why is the fashion industry ignoring disability?

Part 1 of a two-part series With crammed shops, an almost complete absence of disabled people on catwalks and a lack of inclusive products, the...

Luxury fashion in 2019- will it ever be ‘accessible’?

Anna Wintour once said that one of the things she adored most about the fashion industry is its constant drive to evolve and its...

The Sensuality of Female Loneliness

Erica Garza’s memoir, Getting Off, about her struggle with porn and sex addiction concludes with her looking back on a photograph on her as...

Is English football being overtaken by the far-right?

At the England-Netherlands Nations League semi-final on 6th June, EDL founder Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was filmed punching an England fan outside...

Frequencies and what they do to you

A primer to the niche field of "sound art"

Menial Heroics

Reviewing Sayaka Murata's 'Convenience Store Woman' (Granta, 2019)

We need to talk about Trump: the politicisation of Late-Night Comedy

The claws are out - Late-Night comedyis officially taking on the White House.

Wadham’s Race Symposium: has British multiculturalism failed?

Wadham's Race Symposium panel explored the ideas and expression of multiculturalism and race relations in art.

Review: The Roaring Girl – ‘a ground-breaking proto-feminist piece of theatre’

With cross-dressing, feminist themes and a feisty soundtrack, The Roaring Girl proves a fifth week delight

Female Comedians Finding the Funny in the Filth

The term ‘female comedians’ is a, well, funny one. Should we still be so insistently adding the ‘female’ part? Female comedians are comedians. But...

Being under the spell of Harry Potter

An overview of the outrageous content of the Fangasm podcast

The Funny/Not Funny Exercise

A review of David Sedaris' 'Calypso' (Little, Brown, 2018)

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