Blog Page 954

“Don’t paint me like one of your French Girls, I’ll damn well paint myself”

Priya Khaira-Hanks
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“Don’t paint me like one of your French Girls, I’ll damn well paint myself”

The only thing I gained from last spring’s Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France at the Ashmolean was a passionate, enduring hatred of female nudes. There was something overwhelmingly frustrating about the hushed, reverential atmosphere, the firmly-gripped programmes and erudite information plaques, the whispers about composition and brush-stroke, all in aid of what was, essentially, a group of cisgendered men being delighted at being allowed to see real life boobies.

Don’t get me wrong, tits are lovely things – as a bisexual person who possesses a fairly good rack I appreciate them from both sides of the argument. But treating them as mystical, profound gateways to knowledge about form and modernism is merely part of the process of putting women on a pedestal – and when they are up there, being idealised, mystified, and honoured, it is hard for women to clamber down and get shit done, maybe pick up a paintbrush and make some art themselves.

In Creating Modernism, despite the female bodies plastering the walls, there was little mention of how women might have actually contributed to the French art scene at the beginning of the 20th century. Tilly Nevin recognised this, bemoaning how the birth of modernism ironically seemed to be lacking that key component of birth: someone who owned a vagina [http://www.cherwell.org/2017/02/28/the-female-artist-speaking-truth-to-power/ ]. It was, instead, a loving paean to cisgendered straight men and their sexual desires. “There was only one mention of a female painter, Berthe Morisot”, Tilly noticed sadly.  In that exhibition, the female body was central in a way that made it an automatic object, whilst female agency was lacking. It was demoralizing, trite, and most heinous of all, boring.

However, several months later and a couple of hours down the M40, an antidote is brewing. Dreamers Awake – at the White Cube Bermondsey – also has an overwhelming focus on the female body – female meaning, of course, the body of anyone who identifies as female, as testified to by inclusion of trans artist Claude Cahun. However, this obsession is from the inside looking out: the body as messy, maligned, and metamorphic subject.

 

“Don’t paint me like one of your French Girls,” cry the women of Dreamers Awake. “I’ll damn well paint myself.”

The fittingly angular space inside the White Cube is currently devoted to the female surreal. The aim is true immersion: the works are not accompanied by plaques or titles, ensuring that you are confronted by the art first and foremost, followed by a frantic struggle to find the artist and name of the piece on the accompanying booklet. Whilst this does mean that time is wasted trying to decipher the map and numbering system – placing numbers by the paintings would have allowed viewers to experience more artistic reverie and less frustrated paper-shuffling – this approach allows for the pieces to speak for themselves, timeless and autonomous, without being subsumed into a stuffy narrative.

The enigmatic work of Kelly Akashi, for example, functions best without possible interpretations or mystery-eroding practical details about how it was made. Instead, in ‘Well(-)Hung’ (2017), life-like bronze hands drip from the ceiling to the floor, intermittently holding torn onion halves. Every pore and wrinkle is evident on the elegant fingers, which are so real it seems they could flutter in dance or curl into fists at any second. They are poignantly suspended between fragility and strength, violence and grace.

This mode of presentation suits lesser-known artists like Akashi, as her work can appear for the first time in equal dialogue with more famous creators, without condescending biographical details about age and graduate shows.

In fact, the more distinguished names do not fare as well in this intuition-based way of consuming art. The recognisable quality of the Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois or Leonora Carrington, for example, means that it is difficult to move beyond generalizations like “there is Emin, doing her angry sex thing”. Usually, their distinctiveness would contribute positively to overall messages and themes, but in an otherwise instinctive, sensory, and exploratory wander through the female subconscious, a well-known artistic style creates a jarring moment of lucidity. Carrington’s characteristic horse imagery and zoomorphic figures are dogged by art history and symbolism for instance, appealing to the cerebral rather than the emotive and aesthetic. The works are not bad in themselves, but they seem out of place in an exhibition concerned with bodily responses and wordless connections.

Sculpture thrives in this environment. Another highlight is Rachel Kneebone’s ceramic orgies, where legs, flowers, and genitalia teem in fine white porcelain. Grandma’s best china has undergone a sexual awakening in ‘Shield IV’ (2010), and the result is a mesmerizing commentary on the bubbling sexuality beneath historically chaste and restrained female domesticity. Whilst the nudes of French modernism saw men projecting their own desires onto the female body, Kneebone’s work explores female sexuality as intrinsic and self-creating, blossoming of its own accord – no input is needed from Monsieur, thank-you very much.

There are some moments of pure curatorial genius here, such as placing Mona Hatoum’s ‘Jardin Public’ (1993) – a ball of pubic hair on a wrought iron chair – directly in front of Julie Curtiss’ ‘Venus’ (2016), where a coquettishly posing woman is made out of thick, coarse braids. It is a defiant reminder that however seal-smooth and waxed to perfection your woman is, she is hirsute in nature. Her follicles are stronger than any fragile masculinity. The Leonora Carrington quote on a nearby wall is apt: “I warn you, I refuse to be an object”.

Once you spot one skilful pairing, they appear everywhere. Nevine Mahmoud’s ‘Miss her (peach)’ (2017) works symbiotically with Linder’s photomontages: the most seductive fruit (and emoji) is carved from shiny orange calcite, with a suggestive missing slice. Behind it, blowsy roses obscure the heads and crotches of naked women in ‘Girls of the World V’ (2012), ‘Daughters of the Promised Land’ (2012), and ‘Untitled’ (2012).

Feminine stereotypes are revealed as their own kind of pornography, yet despite this disturbing message, the art is undeniably pretty. I wanted to festoon Linder and Mahmoud’s creations with fairy lights and arrange them in pride of place in my room. Despite, or perhaps because of, embracing the experimental, much of the art on display in Dreamers Awake is more than just clever or ‘good’: it is also beautiful.

These simple white rooms of the White Cube’s industrial box in Bermondsey are populated by the complicated, colourful, and organic. Dreamers Awake doesn’t feature female nudes, but rather naked women – and the show proves that when women represent themselves it is infinitely more interesting, raw, and sexy than the onanistic scribbling of modernist men.

Dreamers Awake is on from 28 July to 17 September at the White Cube Bermondsey

Balliol appoints first female Master

Cherwell News
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Balliol appoints first female Master

Dame Helen Ghosh has been announced as the new Master of Balliol College, the first woman to hold the position in its 750-year history.

Ghosh, who is currently the Director General of the National Trust, was elected by fellows of the college, in a tradition dating back to its founding in 1263.

She will begin the role in April 2018, replacing the current Master, Professor Sir Drummond Bone, who announced his retirement earlier this year after six years in the job.

In an announcement on the Balliol website, Ghosh said: “I am honoured to have been chosen by the Fellows of Balliol as their new Master.

“The College has a remarkable tradition of outstanding scholarship, research and teaching, which I believe will be as important in helping society meet the challenges of the 21st century as it has been at any time in its 754-year history.”

Photo: Chuca Chimas/Flickr

Ghosh is no stranger to Oxford, having read an undergraduate degree in Modern History at St. Hugh’s before completing an MLitt at Hertford.

After leaving Oxford, Ghosh spent 30 years working for several departments within the civil service, focusing especially on child poverty and housing.

Dame Helen’s current tenure at the National Trust has created some controversy in the national press. In April, the National Trust was drawn into a row over its decision not to include the word ‘Easter’ in its branding for Egg Hunts, prompting accusations that it was downplaying the significance of the traditional Christian festival.

The row led to an intervention by the Prime Minister, St Hugh’s alumna Theresa May, who described the move as “ridiculous”.

However, the chairman of the National Trust, Tim Parker, praised Ghosh’s management of the charity. “She will be leaving the organisation in great shape – one clear of its future direction with ever growing levels of investment in conservation,” he said.

Ghosh will take over from Drummond Bone in 2018. Photo: Richard Williams for the National Trust.

Ghosh was also praised by Bone, the current Master of Balliol: “She brings all of her wide knowledge and experience – the College will be in the hands of someone who understands its values and has the abilities, energy and standing to develop its role in the years ahead.”

Dame Helen said she was excited about “welcoming students from the widest possible range of backgrounds to the College and to helping create a supportive and stimulating environment in which they can fulfil their potential.”

Who is Edward Enninful?

Nicole Rayment
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Who is Edward Enninful?

This April, upon British Vogue’s revelation of Alexandra Shulman’s successor for the highly extolled and sought after role of editor-in-chief, the internet and tabloids underwent a buoyant craze.

Having worked for British Vogue for over two and a half decades, the longest period of time anyone has ever served as its editor, the fashion world sat in angst awaiting the revelation of Shulman’s supersede: Edward Enninful OBE. For many, British Vogue’s choice for the new appointed editor-in-chief was unprecedented as he is the publication’s the first male and first black editor. So who is the fashion mastermind on everyone’s lips?

Born in 1972, the creative hails from Ghana but moved to London with his family when he was a young boy. The son of a seamstress, Edward Enninful’s first insight into fashion was furnished by his mother, whose patterns and uses of bold and bright colours he consciously absorbed. However, it wasn’t until the age of sixteen, when he was scouted on a train by stylist Simon Foxton, that Enninful became truly inspired by the exhilarating realm of fashion, which he highlighted in an interview for Telegraph Magazine in 2009 by describing his ephemeral modelling career as his “baptism into fashion”. During his teenage years, Enninful turned heads thanks to his distinctive style, described by many as ‘edgy elegance’, and is even known to have played a vital role in redefining street style during the grunge movement of the 1990s.

Between the ages of sixteen to eighteen, Enninful became wholeheartedly enthralled by the lively and bustling fashion industry, working both as a model and as an assistant stylist to Beth Summers, the editor of i-D magazine. This was the publication that was to appoint him as Fashion Director at the age of eighteen following Summers’ departure, a position cherished by Enninful for two decades. The fashion virtuoso’s experience within the industry ranges from being contributing director at Vogue Italia and American Vogue to being the fashion and creative director at W Magazine, as well as working as an advertising consultant for campaigns and runway shows featuring labels such as Christian Dior, Dolce and Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Fendi and Gucci.

One of Enninful’s biggest and most legendary projects constitutes the ‘Black Issue’ which he implemented for Vogue Italia, in which only black models, including the likes of Jourdan Dunn, Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek were featured. His aim was to overtly fight for diversity, describing the chief motive behind the project as striving to put a halt to the “white-out that dominates the catwalks and magazines”. The issue’s triumph was prodigious: to this day, Enninful’s ‘Black Issue’ boasts the record of Vogue Italia’s best selling edition: over 40,000 extra copies were printed by Condé Nast.

British Vogue has been in the recent spotlight following the recent polemic of Lucinda Chambers’ abrupt tell-all interview for the London-based critical fashion journal Vestoj. In the interview, Chambers nonchalantly discusses being fired by Edward Enninful after thirty-six years at the prestigious magazine, and lays bare her pessimistic standpoint towards the current state of the fashion industry. After the interview was published, a poignant sense of precariousness regarding the magazine’s future filled the minds of many devoted readers of British Vogue.

However, it appears that for the new editor-in-chief, innovation and nonpareil vision are what constitute the cornerstone of a successful fashion publication. In a 2014 interview for W Magazine, Enninful stated: “fashion to me is about self expression, it’s about creativity, you can say so much with fashion, it speaks about the time we live in: it really sums up a time.” To truly depict the importance of discussing the issues of the era which we inhabit through fashion, Enninful has brought along his own team of influencers who have hugely impacted the today’s popular culture. He has replaced former fashion director Lucinda Chambers with British stylist and photographer Venetia Scott, and enlisted supermodels Kate Moss (who has been a British Vogue contributor since 2013) and Naomi Campbell, as well as acclaimed British film director Steve McQueen, as contributing editors of the publication.

Condé Nast international chairman and chief executive Jonathan Newhouse affirmed that Edward Enninful was “an influential figure in the communities of fashion, Hollywood, and music which shape the cultural zeitgeist” adding that “by virtue of his talent and experience, Edward is supremely prepared to assume the responsibility of British Vogue.”

With Edward Enninful’s plentiful experience in the industry, his idiosyncratic eye for style and the tremendous support and adulation that he has received over the past few decades, the new editor-in-chief will patently thrive at the helm of the fashion bible that is British Vogue.

“Refreshing, original and honest – a genuine delight to watch”

Katie Sayer
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“Refreshing, original and honest – a genuine delight to watch”

After Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s foul-mouthed phenomenon, completely took off, with a sell-out run and a smash-hit television adaptation, the pressure was always going to be on for her friend and Co-Artistic Director, Vicky Jones, when she announced her own new play earlier in 2016. If Touch had been merely an emulation of the same caustic, sexually-charged cynicism, unfavourable comparisons with Fleabag would have abounded. Similarly, if Touch had even slightly shied away from the uncomfortable topics that Fleabag confronted so forwardly, critics would have hailed it as just a diluted version of the same brand that brought nothing new to the table. Consequently, what Vicky Jones achieves with Touch is even more monumental when the context of production is considered – she manages to perfectly negotiate the line between originality and excess.

Touch tells the story of Dee, a 33-year-old woman who has recently moved to London, and is unable to get her life together. Told predominantly through the lens of Dee’s approach to sexuality, as represented by 5 contiguous partners, Touch expertly presents a woman on the verge of crisis – the audience can see that Dee’s life isn’t going to plan, even while she herself is content to “make peace with fucking everything”. Her one night stands include an 18 year old intern, a 50 year old BDSM enthusiast, and her first lesbian experience, but we do not get the sense that Dee is defined by hypersexuality – rather, she just seems curious about the world. Indeed, if the protagonist were 19 years old, the story of a Welsh girl from the valleys moving to London with a temporary job, as told through her sexual experience, might constitute a coming-of-age. As it is, Dee is 33 and yet still seems to have something to prove.

Dee’s age is something that is implicitly a driving force, but also something that could be touched on more. The blurb of the play script welcomes us to “the secret life of a 33 year old woman”, and this is obviously an age Jones has chosen deliberately as best representing the kind of purgatorial world that Dee inhabits. In the mid-range between independence and loneliness, youthful freedom and experienced sophistication, confidence and lack thereof, Dee’s story is defined by the conflict of youthful sexuality and  committed maturity. Those who remember Fleabag‘s defiant concluding outburst, that “my body as it is now is really the only thing I have and when that gets old and unfuckable I might as well kill it”, might expect a similarly hedonistic brand of nihilism, but Dee’s philosophy is far more contemplative, as she considers whether she has experienced enough of the world to be able to settle down and not feel like she missed out.

Although Amy Morgan seems at times slightly too young to be 33, she nails the characterisation of Dee as a woman who isn’t extreme or desperate, but rather just floundering. While Fleabag was characterised by a darker self-awareness, Dee seems endearingly naïve by comparison, more like a disillusioned Bridget Jones than a voice of anger and frustration. Her experiences are accessible and her outlook comprehendible, and it is the honesty, rather than the urgency, of Touch that makes for such compelling viewing. It is brave of Vicky Jones to produce a play that breaks down the rose-tinted spectacles without ever pushing the boat out too far.

The one thing I am cautious of is neglecting to do justice to the comic essence of the production. Much as it frames an excellent discussion of gender politics in the modern sexual sphere, first and foremost Touch is a comedy, and in that aspect, it excels. Managing to expertly blend its message with its medium, the humour that is diffused throughout the play is both self-aware and genuinely original. The opening scene, in which Dee ostensibly gives her new boyfriend a lap dance while using the opportunity to actually tidy her flat, sets the tone for 90 minutes of laugh out loud comedy that is unabashed and also unafraid of subverting the expectation for it to be modern and edgy. There are some excellent jokes to do with sex, yes, but there are also some excellent jokes that are absolutely not.

Vicky Jones’ authorial voice is genuinely unique and refreshing, but part of the success of Touch is thanks to the creative team. Amy Morgan is well supported by an outstanding cast, out of whom Edward Bluemel is particularly funny as arrogant intern Paddy, and the rotating stage that houses Dee’s shoebox flat is employed to excellent effect. The energy of the production, overseen by dramaturg Phoebe Waller-Bridge, cannot be understated, and as the cast return to take their bows, the audience fizzles with audible excitement.

Touch is doesn’t try to be overly shocking, and doesn’t aspire to make any grand statements. Instead it is quietly self-confident, defined by its honesty, as funny as it is modern or political, and a genuine delight to watch. I am confident that this will not be the last we hear of Touch, and that we will be seeing much more of Vicky Jones in the future.

Touch is playing at the Soho Theatre until August 26th. Tickets available here: http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/touch/

Criticism of Diane Abbott is rooted in racism and misogyny

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Criticism of Diane Abbott is rooted in racism and misogyny

“EXPOSED: SHOCKING SCALE OF HARD-LEFT BULLYING,” blared the Daily Mail’s front page on 12 June, its front-cover an exposé of the particular hatefulness of the left. The next day it ran another story, this time entitled: “LEFTIE HATE TROLLS UNMASKED”, which unveiled three left-wing activists responsible for the publication of a menacing photo of Yvette Cooper, a Labour MP from the right wing of the party.

Undoubtedly, there are a large number of abusive voices on the left and the attacks and intimidation suffered by politicians like Cooper should not be minimised. Nevertheless, this recent spate of headlines has depicted online abuse as a phenomenon unique to socialist activists. This narrative turns the problem into a partisan matter, instead of confronting the genuine questions that it raises about social media and the prevalence of prejudice in our political discourse.

Diane Abbott’s recent speech during a debate concerning online abuse makes clear that this abuse is not the preserve of the left, but a problem rampant across the political spectrum. She – clearly accustomed to the hate she receives – reads through a number of messages directed towards her, messages which contain rape threats, death threats, and an endless use of the n-word.

Anyone following the general election campaign will have seen some of this abuse. Abbott was attacked frequently in the wake of a series of substandard interview performances. Robust criticism of her performances is entirely justifiable. Yet the level of condemnation endured by Abbott was not equalled by the amount received by Jeremy Corbyn when he forgot the cost of a key child care policy, or on Philip Hammond when he misstated the cost of HS2 by £20 billion. This disparity is testament to the fact that women – and especially women of colour – are subject to disproportionate amounts of scrutiny compared to their male colleagues.

Furthermore, genuine criticism was, on the whole, subsumed by appalling, repulsive, indefensible abuse, by a mire of hatred in which even the least disgusting attacks were shot through with a distinct and disturbing strain of racism and sexism.

Abbott also points out that this abuse is far from a new phenomenon, and that any uptick in abusive behaviour has more to do with the advent of social media than with a genuine surge in hatefulness. The anonymity afforded by Twitter and the ease of sending an abusive message online enable bullies and trolls to disseminate their harassment with less effort than ever before. To suggest that political abuse was non-existent before Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader is to misunderstand entirely the nature of the beast with which you are grappling.

It may be tempting to turn a blind eye to abuse for partisan reasons, to let damaging behaviour go unchallenged so long as it is perpetrated against one’s political opponents, but we must – collectively – stand against such conduct. When Tory candidates suffer threats from elements of the left, the left must stand in solidarity with them; when Diane Abbott suffers racist death threats from parts of the right, the right must do the same. This is not to say, however, that political discourse should be emotionally uninvolved or that politicians should be exempt from moral condemnation. This is far from the case. Debates are inherently divisive, democracies inherently adversarial and policies inherently personal.

Simply acknowledging that we ought to denounce abuse while retaining our adversarial political culture is hardly a solution to this pressing issue. A good start would be to apply greater pressure to online platforms to tackle abusive content with the same fervour with which they approach copyright infringement.

More importantly still, we must recognise that this abuse is not just driven by disdain for one’s political opponents; rather, we must challenge the prejudices which remain deeply rooted in our culture, and which are poisoning online discourse. A large proportion of abuse – no matter from where it emanates – is bolstered or driven by misogyny or racism, systems of thought which we must continue to reject regardless of how overt they may appear in a given context.

Right now, we’re having the wrong discussion about abuse. Hopefully, Abbott’s intervention will help to move the debate towards the root causes of this phenomenon, rather than a small selection of its symptoms.

Council unveils ‘cycling city’ signs despite rising accident rates

Susannah Goldsbrough
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Council unveils ‘cycling city’ signs despite rising accident rates

 

New ‘cycling city’ signs may signal good intentions, but Oxford’s two-wheeled commuters are facing increased risk on the road.

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor Jean Fooks, will today unveil the first of eleven signs around Oxford proclaiming it to be ‘a cycling city’, despite the fact that the most recent figures show cycling accident rates have increased in Oxfordshire.

The signs form part of the Council’s long term transport strategy, set out in its recently published draft Vision 2050, which proposes to replicate the commuter cycle rate in its twinned city Leiden, in the Netherlands.

Oxford City Council hopes to increase the number of commuters who cycle to work from its current rate of 17%, to 70%.

In a press release, Councillor Louise Upton said: “these new signs will be a statement of intent from Oxford City Council.

“Our long-term aim is to replicate Leiden and significantly increase the number of people commuting to work by bike. This obviously won’t happen overnight, but this is one step towards that goal.”

However, Green Party Councillor Dick Wolff told Cherwell that, while he welcomes the signage initiative, it must be set against “a background of falling cycle use and increased accident rates.”

Between 2012 and 2015, the number of cycling casualties per year in Oxfordshire rose from just under 300 to just over 350, while over the same period, the level of cycle traffic fell by about 1000 vehicle miles, according to data collected by Oxfordshire County Council.

This rise in accident rate occurred despite the City Council investing £367,000 in cycling infrastructure between 2012 and 2016, in order to improve the experience of cycling in Oxford.

In February of this year, a study by Map-mechanics using Department for Transport statistics found that The Plain roundabout, situated at the junction of Iffley Road, Cowley Road, St Clement’s and the High Street, in the centre of Oxford, is the second most dangerous roundabout for cyclists in the UK.

According to analysis of Department for Transport statistics by Cycling UK, while cycling fatality rates in the UK have been dropping since 2005, the KSI (killed or seriously injured) rate per billion miles has grown significantly over the last 10 years. In 2005, it stood at 875 cyclists per billion miles, but by 2015 it had risen to 1,025.

According to Cherry Allen, Cycling UK’s policy information coordinator: “It’s clear that cycling safety needs serious attention.”

Councillor Upton believes that the ‘cycling city’ signs will “remind drivers to be more aware of cyclists within Oxford City Centre.” However, this is the first time signs like these have been installed in the UK, and there is as yet no data to support her belief.

Travellers asked to leave University College sports fields

Cherwell News
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Travellers asked to leave University College sports fields

Police have ordered a group of travellers to leave University College sports fields, after they arrived in caravans to the site last night.

Scores of caravans began arriving on the fields, on Abingdon Road, last night, with more arriving this morning, the Oxford Mail has reported.

Thames Valley Police have asked the group to move on, after an angry response from local residents. The group were expected to leave by 7pm tonight.

One local resident told the Oxford Mail: “A few arrived last night and now there are loads of them. There is already rubbish piling up and people have complained of trouble.”

A Thames Valley Police spokesperson said: “We were called at 7.30pm yesterday to say some caravans had arrived at University College sports field.

“The people who are on the site have agreed to leave at 7pm tonight.”

Cherwell was unable to contact a member of the travellers’ community for comment.

King of Spain tours Oxford during state visit

Ethan Croft and Fred Dimbleby
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King of Spain tours Oxford during state visit

The King of Spain, Felipe VI, visited Oxford today as part of his state visit to the United Kingdom.

In the first official trip of a Spanish monarch to the UK since 1986, King Felipe, his wife Letizia and their entourage chose Oxford as the final destination of the historic visit. He toured the Weston and Bodleian libraries with University Chancellor Lord Patten, and went on to make a speech in the Divinity Schools praising the University of Oxford’s role in European development. He said that learning “is and should be open and available to society.”

His particular emphasis on “transnational scientific collaboration” comes in light of the current debate on the UK’s membership of European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Four Oxfordshire MPs have condemned Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the organisation as part of the Brexit settlement.

King Felipe was greeted by local residents and flag-waving school children, who gathered behind crowd barriers on Broad Street and Radcliffe Square. The Spanish press pack were also in attendance, reporting back home on the day’s events.

Tonight, the King will attend a reception at Exeter College, recognising the institution’s particularly close association with the Spanish monarchy. A college email, circulated to students yesterday, cited the King Alfonso XIII Professorship established in 1927, and the Queen Mother Sophia’s Honourary Fellowship, as reason for the disruption. Some Exeter students were given a place at the reception, but spaces were limited.

Exeter College Medic Sam Zhang told Cherwell: “The splendour of the royal couple was only matched by the ferocity of the glare from security as I tried to get closer.”

Spanish journalists relay news of the King’s visit back home

This comes after the King, a former Olympic sailor, made an address to the British Parliament at Westminster on Wednesday. He raised the controversial issue of Gibraltar’s sovereignty, sparking concerns among members of the UK government. The trip had been planned for June, but was delayed by Theresa May’s decision to call a snap general election.

Queen Elizabeth II made Felipe VI a Stranger Knight of the Garter as part of his visit, a traditional honour for foreign monarchs that stretches back to 1813.

In his tour of the Weston, King Felipe was shown a manuscript of the Codex Mendoza, a document originally intended for the eyes of his Sixteenth century predecessor Charles V.

At the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Altair Brandon-Salmon
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At the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

One thousand and ninety-two. It’s a large number. Too large. It’s the number of artworks on display at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition – a vast, packed exploration of where we are now, and perhaps where we are going, in art. It’s an unwieldy beast, bursting at its boundaries, hard to grasp fully. The two hundredth and forty-ninth summer exhibition held at the RA – never missing a year since it began 1769 – brings to mind the adage of the curate’s egg: ‘good in places’.

International artists like Marina Abramovic are represented, as are standout British names such as Tracey Emin; yet it is probable most of the myriad of painters and sculptors will be unrecognisable to you. The famous, the up-and-coming, the bubbling under, the old hands, academicians and amateurs, all fight for your attention on the walls of Burlington House. Curated by Eileen Cooper, Keeper of the Royal Academy, directing a Hanging Committee including Yinka Shonibare and Farshid Moussavi, Cooper claims at the beginning of the show that it intends to celebrate diversity and global culture. The follow through, however, is disappointing: the plethora of work on display, from wildly disparate artists, prevents any coherent overall theme being established.

Many critics have taken Alastair Sooke’s line that ‘[this] is not a vintage year,’ with most reviews, untethered from a particular frame of viewing the exhibition, becoming webs of observations, noting fine works, disparaging others. It was ever thus, even going back to Joshua Reynolds’ and Benjamin West’s presidencies in the eighteenth centuries. By including the traditional room of architectural plans (fascinating, but belonging to another world), the whole format of the show resists a unified argument. It is a ritual to be undertaken, rather than compared to concurrent exhibitions. Perhaps that’s a secret strength, to have one flagship annual exhibition left in London which doesn’t have a thesis, but lets the audience guide themselves, picking out the pieces they enjoy the most, leafing through the two hundred and sixteen page List of Works to discover who they’re all by.

As I walked through the exhibition, I marked each artwork in the booklet which in someway emerged out of the surrounding morass to engage my curiosity. Reviewing the haphazard series of titles which I highlighted with an asterisk, it becomes apparent the most interesting works came from minor artists. Apart from Anselm Kiefer’s flower painting Und du bist maler geworden, works from prominent artists, from Gilbert and George to Frank Stella, seem rote, conforming to stylistic expectations. Instead, many of the most impressive pieces were not those which sought to explode formal boundaries, but rather explored existing genres with great facility. Jock McFadyen’s huge Calton Hill 3, depicting a vast, outsized moon rising over Edinburgh’s central hill, is beautiful for its embrace of landscape, while at the same time it uses encrusted paint to make the ridges and mountains of the moon rise up from the canvas’ surface. The moon sits above a navy blue background, glowing in white and grey, far outstripping and overpowering the surrounding paintings.

Other works, equally, have sly streaks of wit running through them: Glen Baxter’s amusing cartoon ‘But I distinctly requested a Rothko!’ barked Big Red is drawn to appear straight out of The Telegraph. With Hassan Hajjaj’s wonderful photograph, Henna Bikers, however, the surface humour serves to underline a deeper political point on female empowerment in the Middle East.

Yet it’s clear, even amongst the works which appeal to my own aesthetic sense, little commonality is shared amongst them. Is this adequate cause to side with Sooke and his compatriots to opine that the show ‘is the last word in déjà-vu’? Far from showcasing the rising stars, so the argument goes, its mixture of established artists, Sunday painters, and men and women spanning every conceivable decade, is a hodge-podge, indicative of nothing outside its own self-referentiality, the walls filled by works from minor academicians.

There’s weight to the attack that we should be cautious of burdening the Summer Exhibition with significance greater than it can bear. Yet no doubt the exhibition has its own unique, idiosyncratic pleasures, the occasional frisson of dissimilar works brought together in the same gallery space. The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition should be seen, if only to understand that once all public art exhibitions were like this – as much as it wants to be seen as forward-thinking, it’s also a vision of a past way of viewing art.

Oxford academics involved in Google’s push to influence public policy

Henry Straughan
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Oxford academics involved in Google’s push to influence public policy

A new report by the Campaign for Accountability (CfA) has revealed Google’s financial influence on academics and policy experts, showing that Google funding for 329 research papers since 2005.

The papers were in key public policy areas where regulatory changes could be perceived to cost the company significant amounts in fines and lost earnings, and were authored by academics from such institutions as Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard.

The revelations suggest Google is spending millions on seeking to sway public opinion and influence policy in favour of the company’s interest. CfA Executive Director, Daniel Stevens, said: “Google uses its immense wealth and power to attempt to influence policy makers at every level. At a minimum, regulators should be aware that the allegedly independent legal and academic work on which they rely has been brought to them by Google.”

Google reportedly paid between £3,900 and £310,000 to authors for papers on topics crucial to its interests such as antitrust, privacy, search neutrality, patents and copyright. The CfA claim that the overwhelming majority of papers funded in some way by Google tended to support the company’s policy or legal positions. Papers funded by Google argue, for example, that collecting huge volumes of personal data was a fair exchange for the Google’s free services and that the company did not use its market dominance improperly.

The report further showed that in 66% of the cases the authors did not disclose the Google funding, with researchers at the universities of Bournemouth and Sussex among those who did not reveal their funding.

However, Oxford academics who received funding to write on Google’s policy interests did declare the payments. Google are also key funders of the Oxford Internet Institute, a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford.

Google’s funding for competition-themed papers spiked in 2015 when the European Commission filed formal antitrust charges against the company. Last month European regulators issued a record $2.71 billion fine against Google for unfairly favouring its own services over those of rivals in its search results.

The CfA analysis attempts to show how Google creates the image of significant and expanding body of academic research supporting its policy positions – with Google-funded studies systematically citing each other, a practice which also helps hide the initial Google funding. Stevens argued that by doing this: “Google has joined a list of business sectors that have exercised a corrupting influence on academic research, including the tobacco industry over the effects of smoking and the fossil fuel industry over the science of climate change.”

Google dismissed the CfA report, describing it as “highly misleading”.

“Our support for the principles underlying an open internet is shared by many academics and institutions who have a long history of undertaking research on these topics – across important areas like copyright, patents, and free expression,” said director of public policy Leslie Miller in a blog post. “We provide support to help them undertake further research, and to raise awareness of their ideas.”

Oxford University has been contacted for comment.

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