IOTW: Ballroom Emporium
Situated at the Cowley head of Oxford’s most treacherous roundabout—an arena where pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles alike engage in transitory games of chicken, all to make their way in and out of the City Centre—sits Ballroom Emporium. The gilded, serif lettering displaying the boutique’
IOTW: Calliope, Oxford’s eldest daughter
Art historian John Rolfe was walking down an eerily quiet Broad Street in 2020 when he looked up and saw something peculiar: a crumbling Muse, or rather the ghost of one, teetering atop the Clarendon Building at the corner of Broad and Catte Street. The Clarendon is one of those Oxford buildi
Icon of the Week: Ruby Duncan
For Ruby Duncan, art is not just a reflection of the world but a means of interrogating it. She speaks about curation as a place where the act of being seen is never neutral. In Ruby’s hands, exhibitions are not simply collections of work but acts of revision exposing what official histories omit.
Icon of the Week: ‘Disgusted of Christ Church’
If you’ve ever been cornered by someone really Isis-pilled— an Editor-in-Chief, perhaps, or the Dept. Ed. in charge of the cult that is Features, you’ll know that This Magazine is no stranger to the public eye. Anyone who’s ever been trapped in an unbearably self-referential conversation at
Icon of the Week: Overheard at Oxford
‘Britain has an underincarceration problem.’ Is this The Isis’ latest thought-provoking Guillotine, designed to scandalise ? Or just another anonymous submission to Overheard at Oxford, reflecting the casual provocations that flow through student consciousness? The fact th
Icon of the Week: Ruskin Artistic Football Club
‘Our legs are paintbrushes, the pitch is the canvas.’ This is a fitting motto for the RAFC, Oxford’s (and probably the world’s) only Artistic Football Club. But standing in the watch pitch at the team’s match in Uni Parks, it’s not the team’s visuals that are str
Icon of the Week: NightSchool
‘Here, it’s like fucking water in a desert.’ Oxford’s nightlife as well as the DJs who comprise it are, to put it politely, dry. For that reason, when faced with the prospect of something new, it is worth paying attention. NightSchool’s launch was something of a flop.
Icon of the week: Becks Morgan
Many prolific artists are more multifaceted than we might first think. Joni Mitchell thinks of herself as a painter first; Andy Warhol thought he’d be remembered for his cinema. All the most interesting people split their time between many different pursuits. I was reminded of this erstwhil
Icon of the week: Americans (visiting students)
Hilary is the August of Oxford. In many ways it is the strangest term. It is the summer of the Oxford year, starting in the midst of winter. A liminal road trip that seems to last forever. The turbulence of Michaelmas seems to be over. The doom of Prelims feels far in the distance. […]
