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Interview: Bendor Grosvenor

Lois Heslop
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Interview: Bendor Grosvenor

I meet Bendor Grosvenor outside the Sackler Library, where he has just completed filming for the Oxford episode for the latest series of Britain’s Lost Masterpieces. Bendor and his co-host Emma Dabiri travel to some of Britain’s great galleries and public collections with the BBC Four programme, seeking to track down previously unknown paintings by some of the world’s finest artists. This episode, filmed around Oxford, investigates one of the Bodleian Libraries’ most striking paintings, which Bendor believes to be a portrait by the great Italian Baroque painter Pompeo Batoni.

Bendor discusses the purpose of the programme, and the importance of our public collections with me. He mentions that the “idea of the series was based on the fact that we have 220,000 paintings in public collections and forty thousand of them of unknown attribution. The idea is that among those forty thousand there must be some discoveries.”

The programme uses the Art UK website to track and trace some of the most important unattributed art in Britain’s public collections.

“Art UK, which seeks to “democratise” art, was started by Fred Hohler who one day said he was going to photograph every painting in the country, and he has. It took him 20 years! He’s done it; it’s all finished, and he did it all privately supported. So the series is based on his work. We go through the website and I scroll through and I look for paintings with no attribution and if something pops into my head and I go, “oh that’s by Botticelli or something” then we’re off! It’s about a one percent hit rate so for every hundred pictures I look at and investigate, one might turn out to be interesting.”

The Oxford episode follows the story of a potential Batoni painting of a former Merton student, George Oakley Aldrich. Aldrich took his degree in medicine in 1745, when the advancement in the field relies on cutting up the cadavers of condemned murderers. When Batoni was studying, the university used to take the cadavers fresh from the gallows, and fights would break out between the university officers and the families of the hanged criminals as to who could claim the cadaver first. In the programme, Bendor seeks to place Aldrich in Rome after he completed his degree, where Batoni exclusively lived and worked. The first task for the team though was to restore the painting, after centuries of soot from wood burning stoves, yellowing varnish and overpaint obscured the face of the sitter, and even ink marks from “some cheeky student who had flicked his fountain pen onto the painting.” 

Bendor says “we’re lucky to have a very good restorer called Simon Gillespie and we work closely on everything together. It’s got a science element to it which is fascinating because you can really burrow down into a painting which may be say 500 years old and has been looked after by dozens of people. And each one of those may have decided to tweak it and it’s like an archaeological dig. You can go down and try and get it back to the artist’s original intention. There’s a definite “wow” moment when we see the original paint underneath. For me, it’s the most exciting part, scraping away with solvents. I’d like to do it myself but Simon never lets me!

“This portrait looked very yellow and quite opaque; you couldn’t really see the colours. And you couldn’t see the three dimensions of it; you couldn’t get past the background and you couldn’t see the sitter’s head. There was overpaint on the scar too.”

The scar on Aldrich’s face is perhaps the most significant aspect of this painting. The scar or burn is not painted in an exaggerated way but is a natural part of Aldrich’s face, and perhaps instead reveals the true nature of the sitter.

Bendor exclaims that he’s “never seen anything like it. You never see disfigurements in this period of portraiture. And to the extent that disfigurement is shown in art, the further back in time you go it tends to be a sign of someone being evil or morally bad. If you were ugly in the 16th century, it meant you were not good. If you look at a Bruegel or an old biblical scene – even a Leonardo – ugly people are the bad people.It would have been quite a brave thing to do in the 18th century to show that – obviously someone later decided to not show it and to paint it out. We know a bit about his career but we found nothing to suggest he had a scar or an accident so that’s frustrating.”

Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri with the painting of George Oakley Aldrich | photo (c) John Cairns

Grosvenor also worked for the Lord Chancellor on the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, and the Lord Chancellor’s Forum for Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research. He resigned in 2018 over the government’s destruction of the Windrush landing cards, and their refusal to open the Profumo Enquiry papers. He cited his resignation with a tweet that “the government’s record management system is not fit for purpose.” He explains his role within the government advisory councils to me in more details.

“That was advising the government on secret stuff and whether historical documents should be made “un-secret”. I was always a great champion for revealing things but the government is like the Blob, they tend to be immovable and I often didn’t get very far. In fact I resigned in protest because they refused to open some papers I wanted to open. I wrote a steaming letter to the Secretary of State. The government wanted to keep all these Profumo papers secret and I thought what’s the point in that? It’s old news. But governments don’t like embarrassing people who might still be around or whose children might still be around.

“The public interest was to have the papers open and such as I have spotted any trend in public appetite for history: I think there is no trend except people are always interested in sex and money.”

I ask if he sees this in art as well.

“Yes. People like pictures of pretty people and they like pictures that are valuable. One of the things I don’t like about the contemporary art market is it reflects the fact that we’ve lost the ability to objectively value and assess art. Because we can’t look at a Koons or Damien Hurst pop painting ourselves and go “is that any good?” we tend to look for the price tag to tell if it’s any good.

“If art history shows us one thing it shows us that what’s valuable today won’t be valuable in a few generations’ time. So in a few generations time the artists from our era who will be the most celebrated will be artists who you and I have never even heard of which I think is going to be very telling on the artists who dominate conversations like Mr Koons who’s at the Ashmolean where I was today.”

I ask what makes something survive the test of time.

“First of all, it’s got to last. I’ve been to conservation studios where they’re already conserving Banksy paintings because they fall apart. Painting on cheap canvases with spray paint and household paint is corrosive stuff so it’s not going to last decades. Timeless qualities. We’re not very religious today as a society yet we still value religious art if it’s by someone like Bellini or Titian. I think it has to be well crafted, hasn’t it? And we’ve lost that ability to paint well.”

Grosvenor deals privately mostly in Old Masters, and I wonder whether he thinks people have changed over the years, and whether the concept of vanity has changed.

“I don’t think people have changed. I don’t think vanity has changed. Because the compulsion to make an image of yourself, whether that’s you or Titian taking the images is the same motivation, isn’t it. I’d like to have my portrait painted, purely out of vanity. It would be a great way to make people continue to look at me for centuries! We all want to be immortalised in paint. If I could be painted by anyone it would be Van Dyck. I’m slightly obsessed with Van Dyck. Greatest portraitist that ever lived.”

Bendor was kind enough to invite me and keen students to the unveiling of the painting in the Sackler Library, and so on one sunny afternoon we all gather to see the artwork in its restored glory. Bendor confesses himself surprised that students are interested in his programme. He exclaims, “I’m glad and surprised to hear you do! Maybe it’s Oxford. Classy people. I didn’t think we had many young viewers; I very rarely get recognised but when or if I do it’s in places like a garden centre where the retired members of the audience hang out.”

“Engaging new audiences is why I do it. Because I’m a horrible overused word: I’m passionate. I’m passionate about old masters. There’s a misconception in the art world that they’re unfashionable and that’s only because people have lost the ability to make them fashionable and interesting. That’s not to say I’m the only person who can do it. But if I have one skill in life, it’s to make what looks like a dusty old impenetrable painting look interesting to lots of people. I do it with all the zeal of a new convert. I’m evangelical about it. The other thing I’m really interested in is connoisseurship and sorting out attribution and one of my great heroes is a Rembrandt scholar called Ernst van der Wetering who says what gets him up in the morning is doing justice to Rembrandt. I think the art historian’s job is to do justice to the artist. Today, we’ve done justice to Batoni. And that’s what makes me do it.”

In recent educational reforms, the government has dropped the art history A level due to declining numbers, which I move to discuss.

“It is very strange. I invite you to read the art history A level textbooks because they’re frankly not very exciting. One of the problems with art history is that it has become overly academicized. It’s become overly theoretical and full of jargon. And if people watch our show it’s because we steer well clear of all that. It’s just about stories and people. I think one of the reasons art history is no longer taught properly is because people have lost the ability to make it interesting. It’s terrible.”

I ask Bendor how he got interested in art history, and any advice he has for the budding art historian.

“I did history at university and school – it was the one thing I was good at – and I wanted to know what the people I was interested in looked like. So I got into it via portraiture. And very often if you’re interested in the mystery of attribution portraiture is a good place to start because you get two bites at the cherry: the sitter could be wrong, or the artist could be wrong. So that’s what got me into it. What I say to art history enthusiasts is: stop reading books, go look at paintings. 

“I did a careers advice session at the university to graduate art history students and only one recognised a painting by Titian. I asked what have you been doing all these years? And they said, reading. No! Go and look at paintings. See everything, see as much as you can. And take a torch.”

The Oxford episode of Britain’s Lost Masterpieces is available on BBC iPlayer now. The second and third episode air for the next two Wednesdays at 9pm on BBC Four. Bendor says that the Oxford painting of George Oakley Aldrich is perhaps his favourite they’ve ever explored on the programme.

Stopping the fast fashion juggernaut

Alec Holt
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Stopping the fast fashion juggernaut

The fashion trade is one which flew under the radar of the environmentally conscious and of policy makers alike for longer than any other of the world’s major pollutant industries. The scale of its environmental impact, however, has only seriously registered in the public consciousness in the last couple of years. For an industry accounting for 20% of industrial water pollution and 10% of global CO2 emissions – that’s more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined – to name only the two most salient of the myriad of issues it entails (sustainyourstyle.org provide an eye-opening overview), modern society has been decidedly slow off the mark in recognising and addressing the magnitude of fashion’s environmental repercussions.

The cause of this indolence is clear; the landscape of the clothing industry has faced fundamental and unprecedented upheaval since the turn of the millennium with the arrival and dazzling ascension of fast fashion and the mass globalisation it brought with it. Sent reeling by the scale of the disruption, we’ve only just now sufficiently regained our balance so as to take a step back and assess the new norm. It is at least understandable, although perhaps not quite excusable, that where governments and law-makers have long recognised and taken measures against the environmental problems caused by sectors such as the energy industry, which had for decades remained largely unchanged in its dependence upon fossil fuels, they should have failed to anticipate the magnitude of the effect the changes rapidly re-shaping the fashion industry would have on its contribution towards climate change and towards pollution in general.

As belatedly as our realisation might have come, the past few years and months have seen a surge in general awareness and public outcry at the state of the industry, and fashion’s big players have been piling on top of one another in their attempts to be seen as the most forward-thinking of their competitors. This August, 32 industry giants ranging from H&M to GAP to luxury conglomerate Kering signed a sustainability pact pledging to reduce microfiber usage, embrace the upcycling of materials, and targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. A 2018 report found 52% of executives in the industry cited that “sustainability targets acted as a guiding principle for nearly every strategic decision they made”, compared to 34% only a year previously, whilst research shows 75% of brands have taken strides in improving lessening their environmental and social impacts over the past year; the industry is a-flurry with change and hasty re-brandings.

Nonetheless, we find cause for scepticism. The notion of “Greenwashing”, whereby companies feign a sustainable conscience for the sake of PR but lack any real commitment to meeting the targets they set out for themselves, has gained increased traction and visibility, with the likes of Greenpeace’s “Detox My Fashion” campaign proving instrumental in exposing the worst offenders and those not keeping to their pledges. H&M’s “Conscious” collection makes use of recycled, organic materials from ethical sources, but with price-tags as low as £5 it does nothing to deter us from our current conception of clothing as single-use, nor does it represent more than a mere 5% of their total products. In the luxury market, Off-White’s SS20 show at the most recent Paris fashion week centred around a condemnation of society’s abuse of plastics, some of the pieces adorned with a re-worked recycling motif in an admirable but seemingly disingenuous rallying cry from a brand who have taken no publicised steps toward sustainability and have shown no intent of doing so. Farfetch-supported brand-assessing platform “good on you” has highlighted the brand’s lack of transparency with regards to their environmental policy. Moreover, the reliance of many brands on carbon offsetting, that is, the financial support of carbon-reduction programmes such as forest planting and carbon capture technology, as a means towards achieving their goals demands scrutiny; inherent to the process of carbon offsetting is an uncertainty as to where exactly the money goes, and some projects funded will simply never come to fruition, meaning less carbon is actually offset than claimed. In theory, carbon offsetting should be resorted to once every measure has been taken to reduce emissions throughout the supply chain, the most effective means of CO2 reduction and the most definite in its consequences, yet in practice many see it as a comparably cost-efficient substitute for real, tangible action. Kering’s ambitious claims to imminent carbon neutrality are considerably less impressive for its being achieved primarily by means of carbon offsetting.

Yet the real stumbling-block to significant change presents itself not in the form of industry practices, but in the consumer attitudes nurtured by the rise of fast fashion over the recent decades. Ultra-cheap prices have progressively cultivated a mentality of clothes being disposable, whilst the replacement of the traditional biannual seasonal collections with 52 weekly “mini-collections” has deliberately encouraged a culture of rapid-fire trends, such that customers view their purchases as inadequate and stylistically outdated within a matter of weeks. One H&M sign read “New stuff is coming in each and every day. So why not do the same” in a slogan typifying of the fast fashion philosophy. Customers are pressured into further stuffing their already saturated wardrobes by the anxiety of their lagging behind trends artificially engineered by retailers; indeed, the average item of fast fashion clothing remains on the rack for only 12 weeks before being reduced to clearance and is in landfill within a year. What’s more, the poor quality necessitated by the production of such cut-cost garments means that they lose their shape and colour within only a few wears, with the material itself degrading far more rapidly than in the case of even marginally better-quality clothes. The consequence is that 400% more clothes are now produced than 20 years ago, with the United States having seen a 750% soar in textile waste since 1960, over ten times the increase of the country’s population during that same time; by 2030 worldwide garment consumption is predicted to increase by a further 63%.

The extension of the lifetimes of our garments is crucial, be it through buying better quality, less trend-inspired clothes, selling them on for others to use, or repairing them when damaged rather than simply just throwing them away; Academics from the London College of Fashion suggest that keeping the average piece of clothing in use for 9 months longer than we do currently could reduce our carbon and water usage by up to 30%. Certainly, the UK has long led the charge in terms of the buying and recycling of used clothing, with most of our wardrobes containing items bought from Depop or from vintage shops, and the emergence of this mindset represents a considerable step in the right direction. Yet neither is this a solution in itself; the UK and Germany take up disproportionately large shares of the used clothing export market, accounting for around 10% each, and were the likes of China and India to reuse at even half the rate of these countries, their second-hand markets would each be larger than the current global one, overwhelming us with excess fabric for which we must have a plan in place.

Retailers would do well to look to the model of higher-end fashion. Although far from a pristine industry, as demonstrated particularly shockingly by Burberry’s burning of £28.6m worth of excess clothing in 2018, luxury fashion’s core values of durability, quality, and timelessness of design mean their products remain wearable for years, neither physically deteriorating nor succumbing to trend. A concerted attempt at producing longer-lasting garments sold at a price reflective of a more carefully managed supply chain would no doubt see a drastic decrease in clothes production and go some way to altering the perception of clothes as disposable. Yet this, too, would result in rarely discussed difficulties. Perhaps the greatest benefit fast fashion has brought to the industry has been the way in which its ultra-low prices have facilitated a certain democratisation; where 100 years ago only the wealthy could afford to keep up with the latest trends, now almost everyone has the means to buy clothes in keeping with the current vogue, albeit only after a number of months when the season’s styles have trickled down from the catwalk to the high street. To raise prices, as would be necessitated by a shift towards better quality, longer-lasting products, would be to risk depriving a certain demographic of the satisfying endorphin rush that accompanies the purchase of a new, stylish item of clothing, and a consequent social push-back might well be expected.

This issue illustrates yet further the need for a change in our tendencies of consumption. No matter the extent to which brands endeavour to remedy the issues in their supply chains, the fast fashion business model and the consumption habits it promotes in the public are wholly unsustainable in their current state. Where the power of individual action is somewhat limited in battling the emissions of the energy sector, our lifestyles being too dependent upon energy for us to forgo using it to any great extent, and the sources of our energy supply being largely beyond our control, our personal buying habits are easily changeable in a way in which our electricity usage is less so. A fundamental and immediate alteration to our entrenched consumer attitudes is imperative, with too many relying upon top-down change without examining the way they view their own clothing usage, but it might be too late for such a fundamental reversal in mindset. Devotees of the high street are so accustomed to being able to pick up a seasonal, on-trend outfit for under £50 that it is doubtful if they could be persuaded to relinquish that unmatched convenience. Fast fashion has left an indelible impression upon the consciousness of the average consumer.

We have reason for optimism in our pursuit of a sustainable fashion industry of the future, but energy has been wasted on focussing on the same few areas of change for too long. Awareness of the problems inherent to the industry has never been more wide-spread, but too little has been done to address the unfeasibility of maintaining our attitudes as they are now. The brakes are gradually being applied, but the fast fashion juggernaut may well have picked up too much momentum to be stopped.

Oxford Union bans blind member ejected from debate

Luke Dunne
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Oxford Union bans blind member ejected from debate

Following the Oxford Union’s No Confidence Debate, in which one member was expelled from the Union chamber after a disagreement with staff, the Oxford Union’s disciplinary panel has found the member to have caused disruption, and have banned them from the Union for two terms.

A panel consisted of ex-President Stephen Horvath alongside ex-returning officers Henry Samuels and Alastair Graham.

The member was found guilty of violating the Union’s rules against “violent conduct” The Union’s finding states that the member in question did not attempt to dispute this, but rather made a case based on self defence and due cause. 

The findings add: “The Defendant claimed their actions were justified because they were attempting to criticize Union policy towards disabled members, and we agree that members of the Society should be able to raise objections and constructive criticisms of the Society through the appropriate channels.”

“But to do so in an aggressive manner towards members of staff is deeply unacceptable”.

An Oxford Union spokesperson told Cherwell, “As per the redacted report on the noticeboard, the defendant was acquitted on the charge of disruption.”

“The conviction was for violent conduct, and other conduct liable to distress, offend or intimidate other members.”

A Guide to Oxford College Bars

Oxford College Bar Review
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A Guide to Oxford College Bars

Every undergraduate college (and most of the graduate ones) have a college bar, meant to serve as a venue for members of college to socialise, though friends from outside are welcome too. Some bars are more frequented than others, due to factors such as price, quality of drinks, or simply whether it’s part of the respective college’s culture to socialise there. Many also serve cocktails unique to the college – they are usually very strong, and at a decent enough value to get the average person comfortably tipsy on a night out. In our first year, we visited all 39 college bars in Oxford (check out our adventures at http://www.facebook.com/oxfordcollegebarreview) and lived to tell the tale. We are here to write a condensed review of our favourites.

BEST DRINKS: ST. JOHN’S AND REGENT’S PARK

If you’re looking for drinks to settle your palate, then look no further than these colleges. St. John’s cocktails were invented by friendly bartender Yannick, who is always ready to tell you about his many concoctions, such as the Apple Crumble, Ginston Churchill, and the ARRRRR. He’ll even make you a customised drink based on your flavour/alcohol preferences!

As for Regent’s Park, the first thing we hear a lot is “what’s Regent’s Park?”, but the quality of drinks served should put them firmly on the map. It’s a much smaller bar (and quite hard to get into unless you have a friend from the college and are not in a large group), but they serve an array of fantastic drinks, all equally delicious and cheap; our personal favourite is the Rheinberg, which is similar to a White Russian. Also, order the Mind Eraser: it works.

BEST ATMOSPHERE: QUEEN’S AND JESUS

Atmosphere is a category that is hard to judge, simply because some nights we went weren’t the same nights college members would visit, so this is more based on ambience and how the bar is laid out. (The upholstery at these bars played a huge factor in our rating.) Queen’s has a more ‘local pub’ vibe, and is rowdy most nights; unfortunately, you definitely need a friend in college to get in, and don’t forget to bring change to choose a song on the jukebox. It’s great for small groups, as it isn’t the largest of bars, but is definitely warm and cozy.

The recently refurbished Jesus bar is special in an entirely different way: it is beautifully decorated, with warm green walls and fairy lights, and has perks such as a UV room (where you can play UV ping-pong!) and comfortable beanbags to sit and play Mario Kart with your friends (and by that we mean lose friends due to Mario Kart).

BEST VALUE: BALLIOL AND ST. PETER’S

Balliol’s infamous Crazy Tuesdays live up to their name, as the price of their already cheap drinks is further reduced by half, making it a popular destination for many students across the university. You will definitely get your money’s worth, but the strength of their drinks also come with extreme sweetness. You can actually taste the low price in their drinks, but that’s a rant for another day.

St. Peter’s is well-known for their Cross Keys cocktail, which not only tastes delicious, but also sets you back a mere £5 for five lethal shots – in fact, it’s so famous, the recipe has been stolen/adapted by other college bars. Best of all, it comes in different flavours: mango (our favourite), tropical, cherry, apple, and summer fruits. At some point in your time here, someone will recommend going to Peter’s for pre-drinks or to socialise; take them up on it, it’s well worth it. These bars are perfect for pre-drinking or simply just having a good night on a budget.

NOT A DRINKER?: MANSFIELD AND SOMERVILLE

If you’re not a fan of alcohol, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you! There are several college bars which double as a cafe during the day and are commonly used as workspaces for students who don’t want to be holed up in their rooms or a library. Mansfield’s bar, with its wide range of snacks, drinks, and desserts, is definitely worth a visit, and we’re a particular fan of their smoothies and cakes. In fact, people will work there into the night too, as the bar section just never seems to be open. Somerville’s Terrace bar is well-lit by the skylights, and their paninis are absolutely delicious. One of Somerville’s college drinks is even non-alcoholic: the sweet and fruity Somerville Sunset is the perfect cooler for a relaxing afternoon.

SPECIAL MENTIONS: CORPUS CHRISTI, WOLFSON AND ST. CROSS

Corpus has expanded its menu quite a bit since we reviewed it in our first year (and our page is constantly updated to reflect this), and its drinks all have delightful names like the Pelican, the Blue Whale, the Flamingo, and the Black Mamba. The drinks all cost a fiver but are of varying strengths, so choose wisely depending on how sloshed you want to be that evening.

As for Wolfson College and St. Cross, these two probably have the most inventive menus out of all the graduate colleges we visited – Wolfson has the added bonus of some fantastic pop-part on the walls, and last Trinity term served some Star Wars themed drinks for May 4th. However, we would advise to go with a friend and in small groups, as security at all of these colleges is quite tight.

If you would like to visit these bars but don’t have anyone to go with, have no fear – join our group Oxford College Bar Tours and will be organising regular visits. It’s a very relaxed social space, a great opportunity to meet other students, and you don’t have to drink to participate!

We are also organising our first ever bar crawl on the 1stof November to raise funds for a local homelessness charity – get involved here.

Reaction in Metatheatre

Orla Brennan
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Reaction in Metatheatre

Reaction is the basis of all drama. A play cannot come to life without being able to rely on the chain of reactions that make up the dramatic form: an electric current passed from one actor to another. The virtue of a play therefore rests on it’s credibility. Or does it? 

Traditionally, theatre places an emphasis on the ability of the play’s art to reflect life in the most realistic way. The goal of the actors is to pierce the fourth wall separating the stage and the audience, reach into their minds and hearts and leave there an imprint of their production, but the crucial element to this theatrical convention is that this intended impact is never stated. That the goal of the actors is to make the audience believe in what they see enough to be moved, that they are acting at all, that their words are not their own but come from a script, that their clothes were chosen for their characterisation, and that the actors are not free to determine their own actions, but puppets to articulate an artistic message, are facts that are almost subconscious to both the actors and the audience. If, as in a production of Barnes’ The Ruling Class, a character is ordered to get off the stage, the unsaid is said, the audience is immediately uncomfortable. That what the audience is reacting to is not real, that they are in fact spectators at all, are facts that when articulated seem to dangerously toy with the conscious destruction of the fourth wall. 

If, tauntingly, a character on stage asks a rhetorical question of the audience, provoking them to react to the art as they would do if they were asked the question in life, the audience almost become actors – they are unable to answer the question invoked for fear of destroying the art. The character of Bishop lampton in The Ruling Class’ statement “Therefore if anyone can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.”  to which characters stare deliberately at the audience is an example of this in practice. If members of the audience were able to react how they wished to what they saw, the production would cease to be a play, but a verbal interaction between actors and audience members. 

That the reactions of the actors are artistic, meaning contrived, the word artistic originating from the Latin artificium, and the origins of art referring to craftsmen, and their skill to create, and the reactions of the audience, if they haven’t seen the play before, are genuine, leads to a paradox. Is reacting to art a real reaction? If one sees a play in which an actor murders another actor and one sees someone being murdered in real life, would one react in the same way? Of course not. 

Reaction is based on the premise of not only repeated action – re, action, but also of a pre existing action to which the reaction comes from. But which is the first action which triggers the chain of the drama? To what does the first actor react to? Is it the ticket men tearing the tickets at the door? Is it the audience taking their seats? Is it the hush falling over the room? Is it the lights coming on the stage? Is it the actor’s first words? Is it it the first note of the orchestra? Or is it when the playwright first discovers the plot of the art? The convention of the drama dictates that these things naturally progress, one reaction leads to another reaction, until the play is finished, but when the conventions are drawn attention to, the line between art and life is made conscious, the life that the art represents is at risk of being shattered. In the same way that some members of the audience have run on stage to save Cordelia in a particularly riveting production of King Lear, the lives of the characters are at risk when their being characters becomes apparent. 

The Ruling Class is a particular instance of playing with theatre, and drawing on its artificiality. The alternate reality that exists for the protagonist Jack, a paranoid schizophrenic, namely, that he is married to a fictional character, is manifested in the form of the lady of the Camelias in act 1, who is in fact a woman pretending to be his supposed wife bribed by his family in order to cajole him into marrying, and thereby release his inheritance. This is another instance in which a work of literature becomes life, within a play which is equally an enactment of a literary work. The last line of scene 8 draws on this irony as Dinsdale Gurney exclaims

“I say, Mother’s just told me this Lady-of-the-Camelia-woman’s a fake. I know J.C.’s as batty as a moor-hen, sir, but this isn’t playing the game.” 

To which Sir Charles replies, “Game? What game? It’s no game, Sir! This is real.” Indeed, when confronted with this, Jack refuses to accept the boundary between reality and art, and becomes frenzied, and even more bound up in his own world, seen by the stage directions upon his being confronted with the truth of the tale – “The Earl puts his hand to his face; when he takes it away his features are covered with white make-up.” If he were to accept that the Lady of the Camelias was a fictional character, and that his father had asked someone to pretend to be her, he might also have to accept that he himself is playing a part, that he is a fictional character, and a literary figure. Thus his inability to concede that the lady of the Camelias is artificial, is also his inability to concede that he himself is artificial.  In this instance madness is blurring the boundary between art and life, to such an extent that it becomes impossible to distinguish between the two. 

So reaction, the chain of electric current which defines the movement of the play, and on which the play depends, when broken, shatters the illusion. If the audience has no reaction to the art, the play becomes useless. If the actors have no reaction to each other, the play naturally ceases to be credible, and the art is destroyed. It is the reaction on which the dramatic form rests, but when the role of the actors and the audience is made explicit during the production, the world that exists for the actors and for the audience from the time they take their seats to the time of the first clap of the applause,  is exposed as both real and not real; A psychological paradox which both fascinates and terrifies those involved. 

Catalonia: Violence Was Inevitable

Eli Rubies
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Catalonia: Violence Was Inevitable

If you have visited Barcelona in the past two years, you may have seen, alongside the senyera estelada, the pro-independence flag, yellow ribbons looped around railings, graffitied on walls, or hanging on flags from balconies with Llibertat Presos Polítics (Free Political Prisoners) emblazoned across it. The yellow ribbons are used to show solidarity for the Catalan politicians and activists who were jailed after the attempted illegal referendum in October 2017, and to demand their freedom.

Catalonia is a north-eastern autonomous region of Spain with its own regional government and a separate cultural identity because of its language, traditions, and distinct history. Since modern Spain was formed from the union of different kingdoms, Catalonia has had a complex relationship with Spain’s central government.

When my grandparents were growing up, they had to be careful when and where they spoke their language, for fear of repercussions. In my time, the pro-independence movement in Catalonia has grown rapidly, arguably due to the refusal of successive Spanish governments to establish any meaningful dialogue about an independence referendum, or even a moderate constitutional reform to accommodate Catalan demands for a more effective self-government. In truth, it was the overturning by the Constitutional Court of the Catalan statute of autonomy in 2010, which the people had already approved, that first led many Catalans to demand independence. As I write, the president of the Spanish government is refusing to even pick up the phone to the president of the Generalitat (Catalonia’s government) to discuss how to address the crisis in the streets.

This culminated in the Catalan government (whose majority party at the time was a coalition of pro-independence parties) unilaterally deciding to hold a referendum on 1 October 2017. On that Sunday, over two million people came out to try to vote. At this point, the Spanish government responded with disproportionate violence. The people who left their houses to vote were met by the Guardia Civil, Spain’s national military police force, who beat them with batons as they tried to place their ballot papers, and who smashed into polling booths, harming many civilians. In the days that followed, most members of the Generalitat, the speaker of the Parliament, and two leaders of grassroots pro-independence movements, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, were arrested. Others, including ex-President Puigdemont, chose exile rather than trust the Spanish judiciary, which has proved notoriously partial on this issue. Those arrested were tried for up to thirty years in prison on the charges of rebellion and sedition. Last Monday, after a two year investigation and trial, the sentences were announced.

Was this jailing proportionate according to the legal system? Although the referendum was not legal, the demand to have the right to vote on the independence of a region and the attempt to have a referendum were completely peaceful. Some people held flowers in their hands as the riot police beat them with batons, and the phrase “som gent de pau” (‘we are people of peace’) became popular on placards and in chants. Yet, these politicians and activists were charged and tried for rebellion, which is by definition a violent act – “an act of armed resistance to an established government or leader”, and found guilty of sedition, with sentence lengths comparable to those reserved for terrorism and rape. Should political dissidence make you a criminal? I believe that these sentences were not justice, they were revenge. One could even argue that they were a tool to further immobilise the pro-independence movement.

Last Monday, most of the leaders were sentenced to between nine and thirteen years in prison. In response, people in Barcelona and all around Catalonia took to the streets to protest, and on Monday thousands of people occupied Barcelona airport. Constant protests every day this week have seen police brutality to an extreme not seen in Catalonia since the death of Franco.

This week, for the first time some of the protesters, albeit a minority, resorted to some acts of violence, with a few policemen injured from rocks thrown by protestors. Protestors have also been burning bins in the streets of Barcelona in order to create barricades between themselves and rows of riot police. It is important to note, however, that this small number of acts is in response to police brutality: I follow various Instagram accounts to which people have sent in videos of policemen beating people that they have already arrested, of people who are sitting or walking peacefully being bombarded by four or five policemen beating them at the same time. I have seen videos of a child being hit, police vans purposefully driving into protestors, and four people have lost one of their eyes; just on Saturday, nearly two hundred people were injured. Rubber bullets have also been used, and tear gas thrown by police from the top floors of buildings. My friends in Barcelona have sent me photos of huge purple bruises that spill over their arms and legs, and a friend of a friend has had the top of their head split open by a baton.

These videos cannot be found in the mainstream Spanish media. Amongst the violence this week and in general since 2017, the Spanish press has been giving a biased and distorted account of the political conflict in Catalonia. This week’s reports from Spain’s main newspapers, in particular ABC and El Mundo, have focussed on victimising the few wounded police, and not reporting the wounded protesters. They have also expressed their belief that the Spanish government is not being harsh enough to protesters, and that it should intervene immediately and take over the Generalitat.

When the Spanish justice system tried the two main leaders of the grassroots pro-independence movement, the “two Jordis” as they are known, they unnecessarily imprisoned leaders that had always defended explicitly peaceful civil disobedience. After years of protesting massively and peacefully, of making pacifism a core belief of the pro-independence movement, this week people questioned why they should not turn to aggression if they would be imprisoned anyway. If you come to protests, exercising your civil right to political demonstration, with your hands held up, but leave with your face stained with blood, would you hold strong in your belief for absolutely no political violence? Most pro-independence Catalans still do, but the more radical ones, particularly young people, are beginning to question this.

In the place of the two Jordis came Tsunami Democràtic, another grassroots movement which organised the demonstrations this week. Yet, this movement is less explicitly pacifist than the one that came before, and seems prepared to disrupt on a more extreme level: for example, the occupation of the airport on Monday, and the burning of bins in the streets. What happens when you remove the peaceful leaders, and sentence them to disproportionate sentences? Something more provocative comes in its place. This does not make violence justifiable, but it helps to explain how people turn to it.

The justice system in Spain is clearly flawed: by unnecessarily criminalising leaders committed to a peaceful democratic process, after the government had already treated peaceful demonstrators with police brutality, it has further radicalised the independence movement.

Exploring Space is Worth the Costs

Benedict Yorston
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Exploring Space is Worth the Costs

It has been almost half a century since the last human set foot on the moon. Apollo 17’s landing in 1972 carried Gene Cernan, our 11th and final moon-walker. That mission was never intended to mark the end of America’s manned moon-missions. Apollo 18, 19 and 20 were all planned, with landing sites and crews. The sole reason for their cancellations was, as it frequently is with science, money. Budgetary constraints left NASA having to cut the Apollo Programme short, just three years after Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind.

Fast forward to present day, and one can see the incredible advancements that came about directly because of the Space Race. Whilst on the face of it, we haven’t returned to the Moon, or landed humans on any other celestial bodies, that belies what has actually been a quite incredible half-century of progress.  At the beginning of the new millennium, the first astronauts boarded the International Space Station, which has been continuously occupied for almost 19 years now. That is in stark contrast to the 76 hours the Apollo 11 mission had to sustain.

Whilst the ISS, and even the Moon landings, could be pointed to as mere vanity projects, lacking material benefit, that would be to ignore the enormous impact of our space exploits.

Earth now has 1886 satellites in orbit, which are used daily for everything from television broadcasting and communications, to the Global Positioning System and weather forecasts. Whilst these examples of the technological advancements are widely recognised as coming about directly from space exploration, there are many more whose origin may not be immediately obvious. Scratch resistant spectacles come from the windows of spaceships. Long life food storage has been developed from the need to feed our astronauts (Mark Wagner aside). Walkie talkies, fire-resistant clothing and digital optics also were developed as part of space programmes. Perhaps most surpassingly would be the ballpoint pen: a meticulously calculated solution to writing in weightlessness, it is now commonplace.

None of the major space agencies directly intended to solve these problems in themselves – they were necessary steps for the ever more ambitious projects they were undertaking. This nearly-unreasonable ambition led to a huge scope of technologies being advanced or discovered. This process is called a Moonshot(the name being derived from the original Moonshot – the Apollo missions). Moonshots are the exact reason that it is vital we continue to fund our further exploration of space.

Google X, Google’s semi-secret experimental lab, was created with the sole reason of pursuing Moonshot projects. None of these projects are funded with the expectation of short-term profitability, but rather with the faith that they will result in breakthroughs and progress. If one of the world’s most successful companies subscribes to such a model, why should our attitude to space be any different?

NASA’s budget this year is $21.5 billion. The US Military budget is $639 billion, 30 times more. Whilst there is clearly a need for defence spending, and sometimes no clear economic argument for space investment, this is the short-sighted viewpoint. It’s been estimated that for every dollar spent on the Apollo missions, the United States economy benefitted to the tune of 100 times that. The undertaking of the project without guarantee of returns resulted in one of the greatest investments in history. As we keep pushing our sights further out into the universe, to Mars and beyond, the technology required, and therefore the technology we’ll discover, will continue to advance. Not to invest in that would be a grave oversight.

If the cold logic of the cost-benefit analysis of space exploration does not persuade you, there is of course the more romantic viewpoint – we ought to pursue knowledge and enlightenment in everything. We can’t do that simply by remaining focused on a planet that represents only the smallest fraction of the universe.

Review: Unplanned-ersnatch – ‘the kind of plot twists only improv could beget’

Sophia de Medeiros
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Review: Unplanned-ersnatch – ‘the kind of plot twists only improv could beget’

Wednesday the 23rd of October saw The House of Improv kick off their brand-new show Unplanned-ersnatch at the Michael Pilch Studio Theatre with an audience-inspired and mollusc-loving hero, some delightfully incorrect science, and the kind of plot twists only improv could beget.

A fairly humble affair featuring minimalist staging, costuming, and scene transitions, the performance had all the traditional charm of improvised theatre. The mood for each scene wasv set by piano accompaniment, as well as the occasional use of single notes to great comic effect such as doorbells or to accompany physical actions such as characters poking one another.

Embracing the medium of improvised theatre, the performers were able to make light of slip-ups such as “Lincolnshire” morphing into “Lancashire” over the course of the evening. Another source of enjoyably self-aware entertainment was the prized “yellow/blue/pink/green” shell being a different set of colours in every scene. The long form comedy format meant that jokes could be built upon steadily, creating a strong sense of audience familiarity even within just the hour. Repeated references generated much hilarity over the course of the show, as did the sexual insinuations of “carbonara sauce”.

The somewhat bland and sexist plot was redeemed by its self-consciously overplayed approach, making an enjoyable caricature of the whole cast. In fact, characterisation was easily the show’s strongest suit – characters were very distinct, sporting some great accents and mannerisms which ultimately rendered them all loveable in their own way. When audience members were given the choice of how two characters should interact, there was a palpable sense of personal investment in each character’s story. This was demonstrated in the competing cheers for each alternative story line option, with audience members either strongly rooting for a character or driven by morbid curiosity to see them fail. At the start of the performance, suggestions for a name and profession were taken from the audience and assigned at random to each cast member to produce an array of potential protagonists for audience to choose from. Whilst suggestions such as “Late Night Nigel: candle-maker” elicited much laughter, Will’s physicality and voice-acting quickly gained the majority vote. The appearance of a Hungarian genie-in-the-mollusc proved an audience hit with quotes such as “if it could be grounded in the language of molluscs, I would appreciate that”.

Although the show ultimately works towards a happy ending, the audience are given the pleasure of witnessing a number of false starts as the plot is allowed to derail into a depressing ending which is then “rewound” in a very literal way. Characters’ actions are played out in reverse at high speed until they return to the point where audience members were last given a choice in the narrative. This rather unique story telling device places an increased emphasis on the “what if”s that are intrinsic to improv, highlighting the many different ways that a story can play out based on both the actors’ improvisation and the audience’s participation. Presented with a choice, one cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the alternative had been selected, and Unplanned-ersnatch playfully offers an answer – albeit just one of many possibilities – to this question. Ultimately, however, you will want to go see this show again to determine just how differently things could have played out.    

OUAFC Blues win against Coventry

Lucy Tansley
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OUAFC Blues win against Coventry

The football season has mixed results in its opening fixtures, with all teams playing, complete with new additions and new formations, ready for the coming term. These matches mark the first competitive play since the side’s tour to China over the summer, and that preseason has set all players, old and new in good stead for the upcoming fixtures.

The Blues team played their first match of the season away against Coventry as part of their BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) Midlands 1A league, which also includes teams from the universities of Nottingham, Coventry and traditional rivals Cambridge. The side came away with a 3-2 victory, reflecting their superior play throughout the match, although Coventry are not the toughest opposition in the group, and the Oxford side will need to work hard in order to cement their claim for the title this season. As the season begins, the team have been experimenting with an interesting 5-3-2 formation shape, which marks a change from recent years, but while it is taking a little getting used to, hopefully this first win will put the team in good stead for the fixtures this term.

The second team, the Centaurs, lost 3-1 away against the Northampton 1s in their BUCS Midlands 3B league, which also includes varsity rivals Cambridge’s second team, as well as second teams from Leicester and East Anglia. Oxford’s men’s third team, the Colts, drew 2-2 at home in a derby against local rivals Oxford Brookes at the University Parks. Despite playing well, the Colts conceded a late equaliser that narrowly robbed them of their first win to kick off the season. They will face future matches in their Midlands 4D league against Coventry, Derby and Bedfordshire among others.

Joining the Blues team on their trip to Coventry, the men’s fourth team, the Broncos, suffered a 4-2 loss away in their opening fixture, but came away with some positive points to work on, with lots of new additions to the squad being fielded in the starting line-up. They will compete this year in the BUCS Midlands 6A league, which includes teams such as Nottingham 5s, Coventry 5s and Oxford Brookes 4s. Notably, these lower teams have recently been plagued with injury among their ranks, meaning that individuals are playing with teammates they have not necessarily had much experience with before. The glimpses of quality that nonetheless shine through should therefore be taken a positive sign for the future of OUAFC this season, and when players have returned from injury, the newly formed side will be back to its former strength.

The women’s sides have also started their BUCS campaign, competing in the Midlands 2A league, in a group comprised of teams from the universities of Cambridge, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough and Warwick. The second team, the Furies, play in the Midlands 3A league, which includes teams such as East Anglia 1s and 2s, Nottingham Trent 3s and Bedfordshire 1s.

Both men’s and women’s Blues sides will play their annual Varsity match against Cambridge in March of next year, the 135th iteration of the clash, where Oxford will be looking to avenge last year’s defeat in both the women’s and men’s matches. In college-level football, the opening round of this years Cuppers tournament will take place this week. Last year’s tournament saw New College take the trophy after a hard-fought final against Christ Church, their second cup final in three years who will be looking to avenge the loss this season. The women’s Cuppers tournament is also set to get started, after St Catz took the title last year 4-1 against a Keble/Hertford combined side. Meanwhile, all JCR football divisions are now well underway, with St Anne’s currently sitting at the top of the men’s Premier Division.

Iran opens stadium doors to female fans at last

Betty Barber
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Iran opens stadium doors to female fans at last

For the first time since just after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women have been allowed to attend football matches in Iran. This follows the self-immolation of ‘blue girl’ who was recently detained for disguising herself as a man to be able to watch a football match, an event which caused outrage in the football community across the globe.

The ban was not written into law but “ruthlessly enforced” (according to The Human Rights Watch) with the argument that women must be shielded from the ‘masculine atmosphere’ and sight of semi clad men. This ‘gesture’ has arisen from the selfimmolation of Sahar Khodayari, known online as ‘blue girl’ for wearing the colours of her team (Esteqlal of Tehran). She was arrested in March for disguising herself as a man to attend a match.

After being imprisoned for three days, she was released on bail and awaited her court case six months later. It was outside court where she set herself on fire, after discovering that her trial had been postponed and allegedly overhearing that she could get between six months and two years in prison. She died a week later due to injuries at the age of 29.

Khodayari was not alone in concealing her gender to be allowed entry. There have been increasingly more “bearded girls” or “azadi girls” disguising themselves so as to support their favourite teams despite facing detention as a consequence. In 2006, Jafar Panahi directed Offside, a film about women trying to watch the World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain. Despite being set in Iran, it was banned from being screened there, yet was critically acclaimed, notably winning a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The international governing body of football, FIFA responded to Khodayari’s
death by pressuring Tehran to allow women to attend World Cup qualifiers. It stated that it would “stand firm” to ensure that women have access to all football matches in Iran and threatened to suspend the Islamic Republic over its discriminatory male-only policy. They label this time as “a real moment for change”.

In spite of FIFA’s pride in its actions, one of the statutes in its constitution states that discrimination on the grounds of gender is “strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion”. It has taken Khodayari’s death to make FIFA act on its own constitution as the ban has persisted and Iran have not been suspended.

On Thursday the 10th of October, 3,500 women attended the World Cup qualifier against Cambodia. They were seated in a separate women’s only section of the Azadi (in Farsi meaning freedom) stadium and watched over by more than 150 female police officers (figure taken from Fars News Agency). The stadium’s capacity is 78,000, meaning only 5% of the seating was reserved for women, while footage reveals that there was plenty of available seating in the men’s sections of the stadium. BBC Persian Sport reported that the FA would not give more seats to the women who wanted to attend, even though only 2,500 men had purchased tickets. The first batch of tickets for women sold out in less than an hour. However, this move was symbolic of a moment of change in the attitudes towards female football fans in Iran.

Those women who were lucky enough to secure tickets were crammed in, decorated in their national colours of red, green and white, and wearing face paint and wigs. They were delighted to see Iran win 14-0 to Cambodia. The BBC quote a woman from Twitter who posted “We had fun for three hours. All of us laughed, some of us cried because we were so happy”. This issue, while not seemingly essential compared to other issues women face in countries such as Iran, is still an important step.

Although women had been allowed into the stadium to watch a screening of their team playing Spain in the 2018 World Cup, this was the first time they had been allowed to watch a live game on the pitch of Tehran. Iranian Football journalist, Raha Poorbakhsh, had the opportunity to comment on the match in person. She remarked that “after all these years of working in this field, watching everything on television, now I can experience everything in person” which simultaneously speaks to the joy that this change has sparked and the absurdity of the ban. Although there is a sense of gratitude among Iranian women, one woman going by the pseudonym of ‘Sara’ says it could be managed much better as it should be a “family sport” yet being segregated by gender does not allow for this.

Since the game, feedback has been significantly positive towards the change. Masoud Shojeai, the captain of the male Iranian football team posted on Instagram that the ban is “rooted in outdated and cringeworthy thoughts that will not be understood by future generations” and this incredulous attitude is shared by many. In the past two years, at least 40 women have been arrested due to going to football games disguised as men and as Suzanne Wrack of The Guardian says, progress is “painstakingly slow”.

According to her, the gesture is not enough, the ban needs to be completely lifted, along with the charges of those who face prosecution and their criminal records. Many share this dissatisfaction, Amnesty labelling the move as a “cynical publicity stunt” and Human Rights Watch noting that there was only a “token number” of tickets offered to women so as to appease FIFA. Joyce Cook, its head of education and social responsibility told BBC Sport “it’s not just about one match. We’re not going to turn our eyes away from this” which is reassuring in so much as it shows they will not let Iran continue to discriminate against gender separation in the face of football.

The situation has challenged ingrained attitudes in Iranian society, notably the exclusion of women from public spaces and their role in society. Some are less enthusiastic about the change and remain unconvinced. Prosecutor General of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri maintains that it is a sin for women to go to the stadium and see “half naked” men, which emphasises the significance of the change and underlines the dominance of tradition in Iran.

These attitudes are found diluted among many Iranian men, like in Nader Fathi, a clothing business owner. He felt that although the presence of women could benefit the atmosphere in the stadiums, “they will regret it” if exposed to “swear words” and “bad behaviour”. Many believe that the activists deserve the credit for imploring FIFA. ‘Open Stadiums’, a movement of Iranian women “seeking to end discrimination and let women attend stadiums” (@openStadiums Twitter) often wrote to the organisation about the ban and have campaigned for women’s access for 15 years. The spokesperson for the group blames FIFA for Sahar Khodayari’s death “because they knew this for years and they should’ve done it a lot sooner”.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has tried to pressure Iran to allow women to watch domestic league matches, however authorities have only committed to make World Cup qualifiers inclusive. This change, which is long overdue and outdated, is not enough. It is unacceptable that FIFA did not intervene sooner, and that an innocent woman’s death has not inspired more meaningful or progressive action. In spite of this, it has provoked an international conversation about women’s rights within sport which is a minor victory, but the dialogue must not end here. We still have a long way to go.

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