Pearl Necklaces, ‘Dada’ Bracelets and Crucifixes: Jewellery and Image-making
In the intricate realm of crafting one’s image, be it in the political or personal spheres, the choice of jewellery serves as a nuanced yet impactful form of self-expression. Whether it’s the enduring charm of pearls, favoured by iconic women like Jackie Kennedy and Lady Churchill
The Blood of the Beast
A crude drawing of God lies in your lap, the limp hand of a father cut in half by a fold and hastily scribbled over. Those brutish lines are shadows on my wall, chanting Gregorian hymns until their thousand shadowed heads erupt with horns. Your towering tongue speaks viscous words, confessing a toni
Why Do We Like Drawing Naked People?
I looked down at my paper and blushed. My pencil had jutted enthusiastically across the page, and I had drawn a disproportionately large carrot-like shape hanging between his legs. I was in my first-ever life drawing class. Oxford noticeboards are overwhelmed with leaflets advertising life dr
Painless Consequences: Cisgender Women’s Pain and Why We Ignore It
Women are born with pain built in—it’s our physical destiny … We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives, men don’t … We have pain on a cycle for years and years and years … and then … the fucking menopause comes, and it is the most wonderful fucking thing in the world … then
Creative Profile: Q&A with Alexandra Leese
Born in Hong Kong and artistically trained in a British environment, Alexandra Leese influences the creative world of photography through her dynamic spirit composed of vibrant colours, the female corporeal elements and items of the natural realm. Through her collaborations with brands such a
The Unemotional Art of Ballet Schools
The way I talk about my time at ballet school has always been punctuated with an awkward laugh, or an unresponsive face to “oh god” as people try to react to what I have told them. I have never found it shocking, or horrifying, or abnormal in the slightest: it was all I knew from […]
Serious Offerings from the Folk Revival: The Wicker Man at Fifty
Two snails writhe over one another, watched by a lord in a kilt reciting lines from Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’. The local sweetshop sells cakes in the shape of naked women. A mother breastfeeds an infant in the ruins of a church—her outstretched palm cradles an egg. An empty rec
Baggage Claim
Our suitcases stutter forward, past packets and tins, slices and loaves. I catch myself in every reflective surface. Wrinkled shirt in the countertop; slick,blotchy profile looming in the cool glass of the cloches; wisps of manic hair creeping in the sunglasses atop so many heads. It is almost a rel
Weather Vein
It’s been weeks since a storm like this— Paper cups are smooth, flammable, and hazardously placed in my hand. I am drunk at a party and the music is too loud. It is creeping up my spine A static hum that rattles the bones of my inner ear, Any second now it’s going […]