The Embryonic Tale: Hugo, Enjolras and Les Misères
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables has travelled far from its father’s pen. Eager for material, contemporary culture seems to regularly lead it astray, projecting simplification (or mere fabrication) onto its surface. However, as it rolled from the press in 1862, Hugo’s novel had already strayed fr
“An artist is just a regular person”: An Interview with Koki Tanaka
Koki Tanaka is perhaps the contemporary art world’s quietest radical: a man who, since being selected as Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year in 2015, has proceeded to gently undermine the very concept of ‘the artist’ in favour of encouraging collective action and historical re
“I call myself an artist that writes with poetry”: An Interview with Robert Montgomery
I pick up the phone to Robert Montgomery and start speaking in the same manner as I would to someone I have known for years. ‘Hey, how are you? Have you had a really busy week?’ I ask him, rather abruptly. He humours me, and decides to talk me through his schedule that week. ‘I’ve […]
Andy Warhol at the Ashmolean with Xa Sturgis
Jacqueline Otagburuagu and Xa Sturgis in conversation on Andy Warhol and other delights.
Antigone of Syria
“Our two brothers on a single day, A wretched pair, with hands aimed at each other, Killing themselves, have shared a doom in common. And now we two, the last ones left—consider How much worse death will be for us if we Defy the law and flout the rulers’ vote and power.” This passage could [
One city, one night, one take
Sturla Brandth Grøvlen explains how he filmed 'Victoria' in one shot.
The difficulties of staging an opera about rape
The Rape of Lucretia is being performed at St Peter’s College in seventh week of Hilary Term. Yet many voices have emerged to challenge the production. The controversy and struggle endured by the production team even to get the opera staged is far beyond what most experience when putting together
The Meaning of Arts Cuts
I am waiting to go onstage during my secondary school’s adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, wearing a shop-bought fancy dress costume that is meant to transform me into Geoffrey Chaucer. Other schools are putting on Hairspray and West Side Story. In whispers and gasps, news flits around the backst