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
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 Moment a Character Starts Lying to you: An Interview with the Playwright Mike Bartlett
“What makes playwriting exciting is that it is fiction: follow the character, because, for the most part, no one really cares what happens to you.” Mike Bartlett recently delivered a talk to the Oxford University Drama Society on his career, playwriting and the importance of theatre in the 21st
The Farce of By-Elections
It’s been quite a year for by-elections. Last month there was double trouble, with Nadine Dorries and Chris Pincher both being thrown out of their seats in a single day. In July there was triple trouble, with three by-elections in one day, including the final exit of Boris Johnson. In all, at the
Paper Paraphernalia: What we can learn about Oxford from the way we use noticeboards
While the listed sandstone persists, the student communities that animate Oxford’s city centre come and go with what — when compared with the lifespans of the buildings they’re surrounded by — seems like a dizzying speed. As students, we come to Oxford with the intention of being shaped by o
Icon of the Week: Yasmin Poole
Very few people, I should imagine, would identify a nameless figure in a logic problem as someone to whom they owe their career. ‘Person A’ and ‘Person B’, enemies to wailing children and demoralised parents alike, have seldom made their mark in any form except a despairing phone call to the
Review: Killers of the Flower Moon
I swore I wouldn’t let him do this to me again. Marching into the British Film Institute, amongst a smug troop of film bros struggling not to update their Letterboxd before the projector even warmed up, I felt intimidated by the three-and-a-half hour run time of Scorsese’s new feature. Although
Sustenance and the City: An Interview with Jonathan Nunn.
Map of London by Harry Darby and Anna Hodgson. (This abstract map was commissioned for Nunn’s book London Feeds Itself. Rather than marking out the city with major landmarks, this map is full of anti-monuments that Londoners should recognise – Brent Cross Shopping Centre, lampposts, b
The Lost Voices Found
There are absences within our poetry, art, prose, music, and politics – voices have been lost. We need only look at historical book-burnings to witness the political significance of the arts, and the censorship they have faced along the way. The canon is fundamentally flawed, and naturally, this