The artistry will be glittering at the second edition of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, which runs in London from 12th March to 8th April at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Sadler’s Wells, South Bank Centre and Tate Modern.
Following on from the hugely successful inaugural event in 2022, this iteration of the festival created in partnership with the world-famous French luxury jewellery company features 15 dazzling shows from a whole gamut of different cultures.
Taking place at iconic venues in our capital city, Dance Reflections showcases artists who, in the words of Catherine Renier, President & CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, have specialised in, “Collaborations with prestigious partners, contributions to major choreographic events, support for emerging and touring artists… These various commitments, in keeping with the values of creation, transmission and education dear to the Maison, all meet the same objective of celebrating contemporary choreographic art.”
Including repertory works, dance workshops, artist forums and awareness-raising initiatives, all emphasising the connections between dance heritage and modern choreography, the festival highlights imaginative ways in which dancers have evolved exciting new…
A tribute to the work of one of the fundamental figures of French Modernist painting
After three years in the making, the Amar Gallery is bringing to London Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed, a unique exhibition featuring paintings and works on paper from the 1950s to 1980s by this French artist, crucial to the feminist movement. Often overshadowed in the past by her older sister, Simone – the groundbreaking […]
Despite being separated in time by nearly 200 years, Sigmar Polke felt a deep admiration for Francisco de Goya. The show at Museo del Prado, Sigmar Polke. Affinities Revealed, explores how the Spanish master influenced the work of the German painter, after he saw for the first time Goya’s Time and the Old Women in […]
For the last year I have been living in the Nineties, and I like it. So much so that I think it might be the best decade of all, at least culturally. Decades tend to crest at the midway point, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties. It was Peak Britpop (Oasis v Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin’s tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown’s Loaded detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year of The Bends, the year Danny Boyle started filming Trainspotting, the year Richey Edwards tragically went missing, the year Alex Garland wrote The Beach, the year Blair changed Clause IV after a controversial vote at the Labour Conference.
And it was the high watermark of Swinging London II.
Not only was the mid-Nineties perhaps the last time rock stars, music journalists and pop consumers held on to a belief in rock’s mystical power, it was a period of huge cultural upheaval – in art, literature, publishing and – inevitably – drugs. It was also a period of almost unparalleled hedonism, a time when many people thought they deserved to live the rock-and-roll lifestyle, when a generation of narcotic omnivores thought they could all be rock stars just by buying a magazine and a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? It’s taken a while, but it’s now possible to see the Nineties as the most creative post-war decade of them all, a decade that far from ending when it did, continues to regenerate. Its influence continues to echo down the ages, an echo of defiance, of “Whatever”, of not caring what others really think.
Released on 2nd October 1995, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
The Nineties chimed with the Sixties in being a decade that was almost uniquely British. It was also the last analogue decade. If the story of pop music is largely the story of the intertwining post-war pop culture of the United States and the United Kingdom, that ended in the Nineties.
While grunge and alt rock was surging on the airwaves and the campuses of North America, with the likes of Pearl Jam and Nirvana carving out solid careers by dressing down in ripped jeans and sweaters and coming off as the completely “ordinary”, down-to-earth gents of raw, organic rock (many Americans remember the Nineties as a relatively tranquil era wedged between the Reagan era and the “age of terror”), after a fleeting glance from the Brits, it was the Union Jack-waving custodians of Britpop who captured the zeitgeist.
The Cool Britannia period is usually contextualised by its demise, by the bombast of Oasis’s cocaine-fuelled third album Be Here Now, by the death of Princess Diana, and of course, the eventual disappointment of New Labour (having triggered culture wars over everything from foxhunting to homosexuality, in a rush towards change and modernisation, Tony Blair appeared to ruin it all by deciding to support George W. Bush in the second Iraq War.)
Grunge was the perfect storm of punk and classic rock. At the eye of the storm were Seattle band Pearl Jam. Their socially critical lyrics and dark melodies made for a perfect soundtrack to the angst-ridden generation X. Here Pearl Jam performing live at Club Babyhead, Providence, RI (1991).
There’s also the suggestion that all this nationalistic flag-waving was somehow a precursor to Brexit. But all this negates the country’s metamorphic primacy as a cultural centre during one of the most creative periods of the late 20th century, and while it lasted – and it lasted for approximately four years, just about the same time as Swinging London did back in the Sixties – it was a truly wonderful thing. Here was Oasis going from fourth on the bill at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow to playing to a quarter of a million people at Knebworth. Here was Definitely Maybe becoming the fastest-selling debut album of all time. Here was Blur and Pulp, here was Damien Hirst cutting sheep in half, Oliver Peyton opening his post-modern gin palace, The Atlantic Bar and Grill, Ozwald Boateng invading Savile Row with purple-lined bespoke suits, Kate Moss, The Conran Shop, a veritable publishing phenomenon, and even the unceremonious return of The Beatles.
Histories are categorised according to what the writer has chosen as the basic unit of explanation, and in this case that unit is music, art, film, politics, self-expression, cool and funny magazines (selling in their millions!), and an optimism that percolated amid great social upheaval. Beneath mythology and allegory is usually the shabby and sordid truth, but with Cool Britannia the opposite was true. A year of champagne supernovas, Pop Art iconography, political expediency and untucked checked shirts, 1995 would define the decade it bisected.
Every time pop culture comes full circle, it seems to pick up speed. In 1995, it was faster than a cannonball…
Faster Than A Cannonball: 1995 and all that, by Dylan Jones. Published by White Rabbit Books, £25. AvailableHERE.
In this short film directed by Emma Branderhorst, we are taken through a couple days in the life of a teenage girl struggling with an uncomfortable, yet all too common problem: period poverty. A survey by Plan International UK revealed that in this country one in 10 girls can’t afford to buy menstrual products and one in seven struggles to do so.
Spotless introduces as to the life of Ruby (played by Alicia Prinsen), a teenage girl living in a low class high rise project building in an inner city of the Netherlands, Ruby shares a small apartment with her mother Barbara and younger sister Marie. The very first scene draws us in to see her waking up to bloodied underwear. Her frantic attempts to find one last remaining tampon around the small flat are futile. Ruby begs her mum to take her shopping, but Barbara is busy on the phone dealing with a debt management, giving us an insight to the gravity of this family’s financial situation. How Ruby dealt with that morning’s conundrum just to make it to school, I wasn’t able to figure out.
Reaching the school premises, Ruby is greeted by her best buddy, who can’t wait to give her an update about her latest crush: he is struggling with assignments and has asked her to assist him with tutorials and she is telling Ruby about how great this is when her friends just interrupts her and asks, “Have you got a spare tampon?” “Again?” she replies. This response emphasises how deprived Ruby’s life is. The next day Ruby goes to visit some kind of local community support shelter, where upon giving her name and being signed off, she is handed free groceries and provisions to take back home: milk, bread, fruits and vegetables. Ruby uses this opportunity to ask if they happen to have any female sanitary supplies, but unfortunately, they don’t. Our protagonist, now desperate has no choice but to resort to rinsing the blood out of a previously used tampon in order to reuse it. The obvious question is, of course, how long can she keep this up?
Spotless tells the story of many unheard women and aims at opening the conversation and breaking the taboo about period poverty. – Emma Branderhorst
The following day, Ruby appears to be having a fun time during sports lesson at school until her classmates notice blood leaking onto her sport shorts, which results in all of them having a big laugh at her expense. A terribly embarrassed Ruby flees from the hall in tears.
The graphic nature of Spotless is an uncomfortable reminder of the indignity suffered by women all over the world who can’t afford proper sanitary products.
Finally, fed up with what she is going through, it seems Ruby has no other choice but to steal a box of tampons from the local supermarket…
This film really asks questions about what can be done to alleviate period poverty. Not having money to buy these basic sanitary supplies is degrading for women and robs them of their most basic human dignity. I applaud how intensely graphic this film is, how it makes the viewer shuffle uncomfortable in their seat. We see bloodied underwear, tampons being rinsed out, even sticky thick dried-out blood all over Ruby’s fingers. I hope that this film will raise much needed awareness about this issue and help bring the viewer – male of female – to relate to this denigrating problem so many women suffer not just in Britain, but all around the world.
Spotless has been recognised with the following prizes: Best Dutch Live-Action Short, Cinekid Festival ’21, Crystal Bear for Best Short Film, K-plus competition, Berlinale Generation ’22, Grand Prix for Best Short film, Oscar Qualifying, Festival Regard Canada ’22,
Best Film, KersVers Competition Assen ’22, Best Short Film school program, Go Short Festival, Nijmegen ’22, Best film Schooljury, 20e Plein La Bobine ’22.
A few weeks ago, Stranger at The Gate premiered in the JW3 community centre in Finchley, and I was lucky enough to be invited along. The 30-minute documentary concluded with a Q&A with both the Director Joshua Seftel and Mac McKinney, the main protagonist. In this piece, we experience religious conflicts mixed with vicious hate and prejudice, as well as the mental anguish of an army veteran with no war to fight.
After joining a dating website, Richard “Mac” McKinney meets a lady, Dana, and they begin a relationship. As they get closer, she introduces him to her daughter, Emily. She takes to him immediately, and in no time, they become a family. On the surface, Mac seems a straight up dude: an injured US Marine, he is friendly and loveable. A strong loving family unit is formed, but what mother and daughter don’t sense is the hatred that consumes him internally.
After serving many a tour in a 25 stint in the marines, Mac has come to grow a deep hatred for all Muslims. Due to an injury in the field, he can no longer tour, so he is back in his hometown, Muncie, Indiana. One day, his stepdaughter lets him know that there is a young Muslim girl in her class, in full hijab attire, and of course, this enrages Mac. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, how could the enemy be so comfortably close to his loved one? Mac’s slight vents at this realisation aren’t taken too well by the daughter. In any case, as a patriot, he must protect her…
Watch the trailer of Stranger at the gate:
It is at this point that Mac hatches the most diabolical scheme: find a local Mosque, infiltrate it, and blow it up. Through his tenure in the armed services, Mac is aware he can buy various items from any DIY store, and with a little construction, maybe a YouTube how-to video to assist, make a rusty bomb.
The members of the local Mosque are slightly perplexed when a man, with all the characteristics of whom one might label a “redneck”, enters their premises. He goes by the name of Mac and seems to be eager to absorb more info about their religion and culture, with a possible means to converting to Islam. Although this is an unusual request, the community are steadfast in their Islamic ways, embracing him and teaching him the fundamentals of their faith.
This is when things take a turn…
Over the next few weeks, the loyalty and kindness shown to Mac by the congregation is too overwhelming, to the point that he finds himself questioning what he has been taught his whole life. Love and righteousness triumph in the end. The truth is too powerful. Mac comes clean to his new Muslim family and admits to them his initial intentions.
Mac McKinney, Jomo Williams, Saber Bahrami, Bibi Bahrami. Photo by David Herbert.
This story is told through interviews of all people involved: Mac, his wife Dana and her daughter Emily, as well as the members of the mosque. In order to understand the film, we need to acknowledge that Mac McKinney had ended his 25-year career in the US Marine Corps as an angry, confused man. While serving several tours in the Middle East, he viewed all Muslims as mortal enemies. He still felt the same way after returning home.
It’s worth mentioning that neither his wife or his daughter held any animosity against the Muslim community, which probably helped Mac to abandon his initial intentions, together with the kindness and acceptance he experienced in that community.
What intrigued me most when watching this film is the direction in which Joshua chose to orchestrate the flow of the narration. For the first 20 minutes, we are sure that Mac is being interviewed whilst in the jailhouse after committing his dastardly deed. The background of his segment also gives that impression, maybe it is set in the prison cafeteria – one would think. We’ve all seen it in interviews with terrorists and serial killers before. But towards the end, when you see that he has been swayed and converted, you kind of feel duped and deeply relieved.
In June, Stranger at the Gate won Special Jury Mention at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. The film is available for free viewing on The New Yorker’s website and YouTube channel.
In the Q&A after, the audience actively engaged with Joshua and Mac. We spoke about Mac’s transformation, how difficult it must be, after being involved in such a gritty, gruesome war, settling into normal life; and how many other veterans are still struggling with Mac’s original point of thought; as well as how 9/11 has brought much tension between Muslims, Jews and Christians. Also, we discussed ideas on what America could do to ease these strains, assessing if they were doing much of a good job to tackle this problem if anything at all.
One of the best pieces of music every written, when King George II heard the famous “Hallelujah” chorus during the London premiere of the Messiah, he was so moved that he stood and of course, everyone else in the theatre followed suit. The team from Immersive Everywhere intend to have a similar effect on the audience with their new venture Classical Everywhere which debuts on December 6th at Theatre Royal Drury Lane with Handel’s Messiah: The Live Experience. Designed specifically to appeal to both lovers of classical music and those who are new to the artform, Classical Everywhere’s vision is to bring together the world’s greatest classical musicians and music with outstanding venues and creative and imaginative staging. The aim is to enhance the narrative and emotional power of the music to create an evocative, exhilarating, and entertaining classical experience that will appeal to ever wider audiences.
The combination of world-class musicians with innovative and imaginative lighting design, visual effects, choreography and staging promises to immerse audiences in a powerful and theatrical new setting for Handel’s masterpiece which narrates in three parts the story of Christ. The first part is drawn from the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah’s birth; the second from the New Testament stories of the birth of Christ, his death, and his resurrection; and the last one relates to Judgment Day, with the final chorus text drawn from the Book of Revelation.
With its universal human themes of birth, hope, joy, suffering, sacrifice and redemption this musical biopic has captivated audiences for centuries. It is no surprise that Immersive Everywhere chose it to kick start the Classical Everywhere programme. Actually, Handel’s Messiah is the most chosen piece of music ever on Desert Island Discs.
The stars bringing The Messiah to live are:
Danielle de Niese, who has been hailed as “opera’s coolest soprano” by New York Times Magazine. Danielle regularly appears on the world’s most prestigious opera and concert stages and is a prolific recording artist, TV personality and philanthropist. The famous soprano shared her excitement about this ground-breaking approach to classical music, “I am thrilled to be taking part in this visionary performance of Handel’s Messiah that will break new ground with its imaginative approach. I have always endeavoured to take classical music to new and unusual venues as well as newer and younger audiences.”
Winner of the BBC Musician Magazine Personality of the Year 2022, tenor Nicky Spence who will be known to audiences as a judge and mentor on Sky Arts’ TV show Anyone can sing and lead presenter in Sky’s upcoming TV documentary Football Fan to Opera Star.
English National Opera regular and “creamy-toned high soprano” (The Arts Desk) Idunnu Münch and American bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum, commended by Opera News as “a powerhouse, commanding of presence, virile of sound, and articulate even in the swiftest exchanges” make up the quartet
From the left: Soprano Danielle de Niese, tenor Nicky Spence, high soprano Idunnu Münch and bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum.
Under the baton of conductor Gregory Batsleer, Artistic Director and founding member of Classical Everywhere, these impressive internationally acclaimed artists will perform alongside the English Chamber Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus. Batsleer commented: “We are taking classical music back to the masses and ensuring that everyone who loves music can come and have an extraordinary night out with the best-quality music making. Audiences who might think classical concerts are dull or stuffy will have these ideas changed forever.”
The creative team includes Director, Neil Connolly (Tomb Raider Live Experience, The Crystal Maze Live Experience, Lamplighters, Heist: live); Co-Concept & Multimedia Creation by international design studio flora&faunavisions GmbH (Genius Immersive Experience, Berlin & Tokyo; Wagner´s Ring Cycle, Australia; Solomun Coachella Tour); Choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves (Whistle Down the Wind, Watermill), Lighting Design by Terry Cook for Woodroffe-Bassett Design (Peaky Blinders: The Rise; Rolling Stones Tour; Elton John Tour and Expo 2020, Dubai); and Sound Design by Andy Graham (The Book Thief, Bolton Octagon).
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663.
The original Theatre Royal, Drury Lane – one of London’s oldest and most prominent theatres – was well known to Handel in the 1700s and his music remained popular there right up to the 1900s, with almost annual performances of Messiah. These would have been as popular with audiences then as the big West End productions playing there are now. By choosing this stunning setting, recently lovingly restored by LW Theatres, Classical Everywhere brings Handel’s great work back to its roots, reclaiming it from the classical concert hall for the wider public once again.
Handel’s Messiah: The Live Experience
6th December 2022, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 7.30 pm
Running time: Approximately 2 hours (including a 20-minute interval)
Laura Donnelly made her on-screen debut in 2005 in the Emmy Award-winning comedy drama Sugar Rush and hasn’t stopped working since. From internationally acclaimed plays such as The Ferryman for which she won an Olivier Award to blockbuster TV shows such as The Fall and The Nevers. Back in London after filming Werewolf by Night (Disney+/Marvel) alongside Gael García Bernal, Laura spoke to our Editor Julia Pasarón about her passion for acting and how she has become a superhero like you’ve never seen before.
Laura was born and raised in Northern Ireland and graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004. It was thanks to an Irish dancing teacher she had in school that she decided to pursue a career in acting. “I was just seven or eight. She really encouraged me and kept saying I was destined for the stage,” she shares, “and I don’t know if I would have contemplated becoming an actor if it hadn’t been for her.” From her early participation in amateur productions, she developed a love for the theatre, “that first feeling of being backstage and getting ready for a show, that really got me.”
I seek out women who are complex. I want to have to investigate my characters and I want them to be well-rounded…
– Laura Donnelly
Once she had made up her mind, she realised that a lot of her life would probably involve living in London, so she went to study in Scotland to spend time elsewhere. “I’ve always loved Scotland so it was an easy decision. The school was great and I had a wonderful three years there.” The same summer she graduated she did her first professional play, David Mamet’s A Boston Marriage, in Dublin. From there she went to Edinburgh to do some more theatre before moving to London where her career on TV took off significantly. From Emmy Award winning Sugar Rush (Channel 4), BBC’s Merlin and The Fall, with Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson, Golden Globe nominated Outlander and BAFTA award-winning drama Occupation to many more. Recently she can be seen in HBO’s hugely popular fantasy series, The Nevers (available on Sky and Now TV).
Set in London in the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign, The Nevers focuses on the “Touched”: people – mostly women – who suddenly develop abnormal abilities, some more charming than others. Among them is Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), a mysterious, determined widow and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), a brilliant young inventor. They are the champions of this new underclass, making a home for the Touched to make room for those whom history as we know it, has no place. The series also stars James Norton, Eleanor Tomlinson, Olivia Williams and Nick Frost.
Having seen Laura in several of her TV roles, I think her projects encompass a lot of strength. Despite her small physical frame and delicate features, there is a power in her that comes out in every one of her characters. “I believe that most actors bring a natural kind of something with how they act, so casting directors who have previously seen your work will think of you when they need to cast for a similar role. I think in my case it may be the direction you point out, but I try to diversify and present my characters differently. You have to be careful or you can end up playing the same roles all the time.”
Amalia True is a very good example of the kind of character Laura likes playing. “I seek out women who are complex. I want to have to investigate my characters and I want them to be well-rounded. Amalia is strong and determined, but also vulnerable. The same with Caitlin. She has strength but there’s huge vulnerability there, a struggle to deal with what is going on.” Laura is referring to the role she plays in The Ferryman, written by her partner Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes. The play was inspired by a true story. Several months before Laura was born in Belfast, her 26-year-old uncle, who was involved with the Irish Republican Army, vanished. Three years later, his body was found in a bog. Laura told this story to her partner and he made it into The Ferryman. It was the fastest-selling play in Royal Court Theatre history and won Laura an Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2019, a nomination at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress for the Broadway production.
It is not just for The Ferryman that her theatre work has been lauded. Critics often praise her performances. For example, her role as “other woman” in Butterworth’s The River opposite Hugh Jackman was described as graceful and convincing by The New York Times, and she also received acclaim for her work in The Wasp, Philadelphia Here I Come, Romeo and Juliet and many more.
Opening picture: Laura Donnelly wears dress by Bao Ta. Jewellery by Adler.
To read this interview in full, please order your copy of our new issue HERE.
The brainchild of Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe and the late graphic artist designer Pierre Keller – credited with turning the Lausanne University of Art & Design into one of the most influential design schools in the world – the Hublot Design Prize was created in 2015 to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the launch of the iconic Big Bang model and highlights the work of the designers of tomorrow. As such, the Hublot Design Prize aims to provide an accomplished designer with a platform to launch and increase the exposure of their work and further advance their career.
In this, its seventh year, Hublot, which has a history of exploring the boundaries of design, chose the eight finalists to its design prize from a whole range of disciplines. These exceptionally talented young designers were selected by an independent jury and then presented to the judging panel: Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries; Marva Griffin, the founder of the design fair SaloneSatellite; the design critic and author Alice Rawsthorn; and Samuel Ross, who won the award in 2019. The event to announce the winners took place last week in London, at the Serpentine Gallery. This year’s eight finalists were:
Connor Cook: is a Netherlands-based designer from California who has developed a practice of computational performance, transforming the technical operations of computer game engines into live, interactive audio-visual experiences that bring an affective, visceral dimension to the emotionally sterile world of machines.
Maya Bird-Murphy: designer, educator, founder and executive director of Chicago Mobile Makers, an award-winning non-profit organisation bringing design and skill-building workshops to underrepresented communities in the hope of helping to make the world a more equitable place to live.
Hiroto Yoshizoe: his strong background in spatial design was mostly developed working at Japan’s largest architectural design company, where he was involved in over 300 projects for urban development and commercial spaces. His innovative designs are inspired by primitive elements and natural phenomena.
Kusheda Mensah: Born and raised in Peckham with Ghanaian roots, Kusheda’s debut collection, Mutual at Salone Satellite 21, encouraged social interaction in the age of social media. She creates responsive and reactive design through her studio, Modular by Mensah.
Nifemi Marcus-Bello: this Nigeria-based industrial designer is known for his community-led, ethnographic-conscious design approach that pursues new forms and typologies. In 2017, he founded his eponymous design studio focusing on furniture, product and installation design.
Luigi Alberto Cippini: is an architect and a curator who founded the European architecture practice Armature Globale. As a curator, he has developed research shows and screening programmes such as BE5K Confinement at the Fondazione Prada in 2016 and Sturm&Drang at the Fondazione Prada Osservatorio in 2021.
Sasha Anisimova is trying to convey the feelings of her war-devastated country through her illustrations.
Sasha Anisimova: born and raised in Kharkiv, Ukraine, before the war Sasha was working as a graphic designer and illustrator, often creating representations of joyous moments in life. Now she has to imagine these scenes, drawing outlines of happy families against the background of the devastation caused by the war. “My career as an illustrator started with Covid. I began to draw family situations in a very colourful way,” she explains, “It was about emotions. I didn’t draw faces but scenes that expressed those emotions, such as a playing guitar, or a care card, so everyone could understand the feeling behind. I wanted to represent that, even if Covid forced people to be apart, we were together in our feelings.”
With the war, Sasha was determined to do the same, to represent people’s feelings. “We have lost our lives, our everyday activities, our livelihoods… I don’t think the international community can understand even if we feel its support.” Probably she is right. Back in February she woke up one day to her building shaking as a leaf because of a Russian attack. She had to abandon her home, she had to leave her life behind. Just attending the Hublot Design Awards was a challenge in itself. Sasha travelled from her home in Kharkiv to Warsaw by bus before being able to fly to London. This has been her first trip to Britain. She told me that what matters the most to her and to the rest of the Ukranians is that the rest of the world believes them.
“Buildings in ruins are horrible, but they are empty. I wanted to show the kind of life they once had inside.” – Sasha Anisimova
Sasha’s work shows the struggle of the Ukranian people and their resiliance. Gone are the happy illustrations, the scenes by the sea and the pictures with her dog. “Now I am drawing everything we lost,” she shares, “and feelings we didn’t realise how important they were, like being safe, or being able to decide where your home is.” She started to post her new drawings on Instagram in March and the response was overwhelming. “We want the rest of the world to know what we are going through and for that, maybe my drawings, with their simple lines are easier to understand. But this is not about my illustrations anymore, it is about my country.”
Sun Xiaoxi: a graphic designer from Beijing who co-founded design studio PAY2PLAY. From magazines to packaging, exhibitions to art projects, his works integrate traditional Chinese typography with contemporary designs that experiment with new materials and forms.
Walking around the Serpentine Gallery observing the work of these young and ambitious designers I realised how truly diverse were the fields that Hublot had looked at this year. Ricardo Guadalupe, Hublot’s CEO, commented: “They are an inspiration to everything we do at Hublot, and we wish them all every success in the future.”
To make this Award even more thrilling, Philippe Tardivel, CMO at Hublot, announced that for the first time, that all eight finalists would get CHF5,000 and the artists awarded the newly formed Pierre Keller Award, CHF10,000 each. Anybody who knows a bit about the world of the arts would know that young artists and designers are famously skint and that even getting materials to bring their ideas to reality can be a big issue. No wonder the room burst into a spontaneous applause as Philippe announced the good news. “We realised that for the designers, it is a big effort to come here and to be a finalist,” he explained, “they have to spend time and resources to submit top quality works to the Hublot Design Award, so we thought it was important to give them the means that would encourage and enable young designers to make their ideas a reality.”
“I wanted to create a very accessible entry point to the world of design…” – Maya Bird-Murphy
One of the runners-up and co-recipient of the Pierre Keller Award was Maya Bird-Murphy came in third place. Maya is a great believer in opening the arms of the design world to include more people and perspectives through teaching and community engagement, hence her Chicago Mobile Makers programme. Maya has an architectural background. Very early in her career she realised that there was hardly any diversity in this field, that there were many people who didn’t even know what architecture means. “I wanted to create a very accessible entry point to the world of design in general, and that’s how I ended up in a van visiting different communities, talking about design and encouraging children and adults to get involved.” After five years of hustling and having to do multiple jobs, the Pierre Keller brings Maya much-deserved validation and gives her the chance to invest in more inclusive and diverse projects. “I want to help others to start their own practices.”
The other runner-up, sharing the Pierre Keller Award with Maya was Connor Cook, who had literally graduated the day before from his masters. I was fascinated by his work. He attempts to inhabit the machine and rework it from the inside out in order to challenge the naturalized despotism of technological systems. His staging reminded me of the emergence of performance art in the German Democratic Republic in the 1980s. Philippe said about Connor: “We [Hublot] wanted to encourage him to keep working in the field he has chosen, where the technical element combines with his creativity and intellectual thinking to drive design into the future. He is a visionary.”
“I want to demystify these things [machines] and remind people that they are created by humans.” – Connor Cook
Connor thinks that increasingly, we are seeing technology and “machines” as incomprehensible things, giving them almost god status. “This perception is exacerbated by the difficult language that is normally used to describe anything related to artificial intelligence. I want to demystify these things and remind people that they are created by humans. I turn them inside out, put them to uses that were not mean for them.” In order to do that, Connor creates platforms of mixed reality with live performances in which he uses his body to control screens and sounds, creating an immersive environment that resembles the videogame world.
Watch Connor Cook perform:
The coveted Hublot Design Award, which includes CHF80,000 in prize money went to Nifemi Marcus-Bello, whose expression as his name was announced revealed his genuine surprise as having earned the title of winner of the Hublot Design Prize 2022. The jury had a very hard time picking just one winner. Samuel explained how they finally decided: “Nifemi’s work brings together hard skill and craft in a way quite close to engineering, traversing nations, continents and cityscapes, with community and human interaction at the heart of it”. The coveted Hublot Design Award, which includes CHF80,000 in prize money went to Nifemi Marcus-Bello, whose expression as his name was announced revealed his genuine surprise as having earned the title of winner of the Hublot Design Prize 2022. The jury had a very hard time picking just one winner. Samuel explained how they finally decided: “Nifemi’s work brings together hard skill and craft in a way quite close to engineering, traversing nations, continents and cityscapes, with community and human interaction at the heart of it”.
Nigerian-born designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello won for his work that results in new forms and typologies centring around community needs.
Nifemi dedicated the award to all the people he has collaborated with, both in the past and in his current practice. At present, he is involved in what his mural at the Serpentine Gallery described as a “self-imposed project”. When asked what this meant, he replied: “As a designer, I am currently having many more questions than answers so what I am trying to do right now is to find some of those answers. For example, what is contemporary African design? In order to find out, I am finding design objects, products from everyday life that are produced out of necessity, across the continent and documenting them. I am imposing that task on myself.”
The creativity and commitment of these young designers truly impressed me. This year they received the highest-calibre entries from across the world, an indication of Hublot’s reputation and commitment to its role as promoters of emerging talent in the field of design. Philippe explained, “The existence of Hublot is based on design. Design is creativity and we need to nourish the desire to come into this world, which is very much the world of Hublot.”
The video was ordinary enough, a female competitor in the Asian Mountaineering Championships in South Korea climbing up a steep indoor wall, reaching from one hold to another, her long dark hair held back in a ponytail. This is Elnaz Rekabi, a rock climber from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and her simple act of appearing in the competition without the mandatory headscarf has made this one of the most defiant and personally dangerous acts that an Iranian woman could commit.
The world interpreted her competing without a hejab as a show of solidarity for the protests that have erupted in Iran in the past month, and as an act of quiet civil disobedience, the likes of which have been mushrooming all over the country. The women of Iran – supported and surrounded by men – have been rising up in their mases to reject the compulsory hejab imposed by the Islamic Republic’s Sharia law, to protest the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini, and to chant for an end to the Islamic Republic itself.
Elnar Rekabi, 33, at the final of the Asian Climbing Championships in Seoul, 16th October, 2022, wearing a black headband rather than the hejab.
The protests erupted spontaneously after the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who was taken into custody on the 13th of September because of “bad hejab”. She was visiting relatives in Tehran when the Morality Police had challenged her about hair showing from her standard hejab of headscarf and long loose coat. She was in custody for two hours before being taken to hospital, where she lay in a coma. She died three days later. The authorities claimed that she had a heart attack from a pre-existing condition. Her family deny this, and state that her body showed signs of being beaten. Protests broke out in Iranian Kurdistan, Mahsa’s homeland and, in spite of a brutal crackdown by the authorities, they soon spread throughout the country, the Kurdish freedom cry of “Woman, Life, Freedom” the dominant chant to what has become the biggest protests that Iran has seen since the revolution of 1979, recorded in 350 locations. In the rest of the planet, people are coming together in support – on the first of October, 500,000 people marched in solidarity across the world.
Thousands turn out in Melbourne to stand in solidarity with protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini.
What started as a protest against the mandatory hejab soon became a demand for freedom. While the brutal treatment of Mahsa Jhina Amini was the spark that lit this conflagration of rage, the real heat comes from decades of oppression of any viable opposition to the hardline clerical regime, a free falling economy, the mass corruption and hypocrisy of the ruling elite, which refuses to engage with Iranians’ simplest demands even as their own children post pictures of the parties they hold in mansions in LA, bought with the pilfered resources of our country.
This is not a call for the end of Islam, it is a call for the end of the symbols of state power and abuse, a call that even devout Iranians have joined. Religious women in hejab are in the protests alongside the girls who have so courageously whipped off their headscarves to face the regime’s forces with their hair flowing. The women of Iran have been demanding freedom ever since Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979 – the first demonstration against mandatory hejab was three weeks after his arrival. Before the revolution, Iranian women had some of the most liberal laws in the Middle East, and they had been voting since 1964. Significant uprisings led by women have taken place since. From 2009 onwards, men have joined women in these protests, often adopting hejab themselves to express their equality with women.
The demonstrations all around the world supporting Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jîyan, Azadî) have encouraged Iranian women to keep strong and defiant.
These demonstrations feel different to those which have come before in significant ways. In spite of a brutal crackdown which has seen live and rubber bullets being shot into protesters, mass rounding up of university students, dystopian scenes of school children being beaten by security forces in their own schools, a mass attack on Kurdistan with drones and shelling directly into people’s houses, and a massacre in another ethnic monitory province of Sistan and Baluchistan, the people of Iran are not giving up. There are increasing instances of quiet civil disobedience – women going about their daily lives without the mandatory hejab.
Elnaz Rekabi’s appearance in Seoul without hers was the latest instance of women taking back their power and losing their fear. But the regime continues to fight back: Elnaz went missing in Seoul for two days after which she stated on her Instagram that she had appeared without her hejab as a mistake and apologised for doing so. It’s assumed that the Iranian authorities exerted enough pressure on her to make her write this. Yet, when she flew back into Iran at an ungodly hour, nonetheless the people of Iran congregated at the airport in their thousands to welcome her back, calling her “champion”. Whatever happens now to Elnaz and the many thousands like her that are being held in custody, tortured, raped and brutalised, something important has changed in Iran, and whatever violent repression is used to send people back home, Iran and its people will never be the same again.
Kamin Mohammadi is an exiled Iranian writer living in Italy. She is also a broadcaster and journalist specialising in Iran related topics, among other things.
Kamin Mohammadi’s The Cypress Tree: A Love Letter To Iran, published by Bloomsbury is available HERE.
Rolls-Royce champions artists of international merit
Launched this year, The Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge is a new biennial initiative from Rolls-Royce’s Muse programme. It invites emerging artists to design artwork inspired by the Spirit of Ecstasy – the sculptural figurine that adorns the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce motor car. This first edition focused on the medium of textile, challenging participants to create textile–based artworks pushing the boundaries of design. Our Editor Julia Pasarón attended the presentation of the winning artworks in London and had the chance to speak to both the artists and a few members of the jury, to learn about this new Challenge and its significance.
Jessica Persson Conway, Global Head of the Rolls-Royce Arts Programme, told me how it all started, “In 2019 we decided to take this long-standing relationship to the next level and founded our own Arts Programme, designed to give a platform to rising artists and leave a legacy of artistic achievement. Through the Dream Commission and the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge initiatives, we ignite a dialogue with creative visionaries of our times and form a gateway to fresh ideas and unbounded innovation.”
Watch an introduction to The Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge:
It is all about celebrating craftmanship, as Christine Franck, Head of Colour, Materials & Trim Design at Rolls-Royce explained to me, as we admired the winning sculptures, “With the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge, we continue to celebrate outstanding craftsmanship and material excellence. It was amazing to discover how many diverse approaches to textiles there are, and how creatively artists experimented with the topic. It is truly inspiring and rewarding to see these extraordinary pieces, representing three completely different design directions.”
To start the Challenge, international experts from the creative world nominated a longlist of artists, all of whom were invited to create a proposal for a new piece of work. The nominators included Glenn Adamson, Curator; Anne Marr, Programme Director, Jewellery, Textiles and Materials at University of the Arts London; Nana Ocran, Founding Editor of People’s Stories Project; and Mizuki Takahashi, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong.
An expert jury then reviewed the proposals and selected three winners to bring their pieces to life. The jury included Anders Warming, Christine Franck and Jessica Persson Conway from Rolls-Royce; Yoon Ahn, Director of Jewellery at Dior Men and Founder of Ambush; Tim Marlow, Chief Executive and Director at the Design Museum, London; and Sumayya Vally, Principal at Counterspace Studio, Johannesburg.
“The Spirit of Ecstasy continues to be our muse for the ongoing pursuit of excellence. She embodies what we, as the House of Rolls-Royce, stand for: strive for perfection, attention to detail and timeless beauty,” explained Anders Warming. “It is fascinating to see our icon being transformed into these three very unique expressions, pushing technical and conceptual boundaries. These extraordinary masterpieces celebrate a different dimension of our iconic figurine, manifesting the exciting future of textile design.”
The winners of the inaugural competition and commissioned by Rolls-Royce to produce their proposed textile-based sculptures were Moroccan artist Guizlane Sahli, Chinese Bi Rongrong and London based multidisciplinary designer, Scarlett Yang.
“The Spirit of Ecstasy to me symbolises freedom and Nissa’s Rina is an ode to female freedom…”
-Ghizlane Shali
Ghizlane Shali studied architecture in Paris before moving back to Morocco where she started running an embroidery workshop with local artisan producing handmade clothes. Her concerns for the environment, in 2012, Ghizlane co-founded the Zbel Manifesto collective, where she works mostly with another female using primarily waste and repurposed materials. She has a beautifully romantic view of what other people would considered just rubbish. “I think that these materials come with the energy distilled from their previous lives, they come with a soul.”
Her understanding of space thanks to her architectural background shows in all her work, including the sculpture she created for the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge, Nissa’s Rina (Woman’s song). Ghizlane tells me that she wanted to celebrate women around the world and her own femininity. The three-dimensional sculpture represents two wings, made mostly with recyclable and salvaged materials wrapped in silk and gold, following traditional embroidery techniques. When together, they form what she calls ‘alveoles’, which remind me of beehives. The feathers are made of gold-plated copper. “The Spirit of Ecstasy to me symbolises freedom and Nissa’s Rina is an ode to female freedom, it is about the intimacy of the female body” she says, “I think I became an artist to celebrate women.”
In Nissa’s Rina, Ghizlane covered the tops of plastic bottles with silk and gold thread following traditional embroidery techniques.
Bi Rongrong is an artist who ‘reads cities’. When travelling, she scans the urban architecture for street art, ornamental patterns, posters – any fragments she can use as visual fodder for her vibrant multimedia works. The way she sees it, “If civilisation is the land, then the cities are the forests which grow on this land.” She began her journey as an artist at the University of Sichuan, studying Chinese traditional landscape painting. As well as the streets, Bi also finds inspiration in museums of historic art and architecture, a move that led to her to bring textiles into her work. “Architecture is not only stones, it can be textiles too,” she explains, “Nomadic people don’t have solid buildings. Where they put down their carpets is where their home is.”
Bi Rongrong, Stitched Urban Skin, 2022. Courtesy Muse, The Rolls-Royce Arts Programme.
Upon returning to Shanghai in 2016, she enlisted the help of fashion students at the city’s Institute of Visual Art to incorporate knitting and crocheting into her work. In 2020, Bi brought LEDs, architecture and video into her work with textiles. Stitched Urban Skin, the artwork she created for Rolls-Royce’s Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge, combines the hard metal of an automobile and the coolness of LED with the softness of textiles and ancient Xiaoshan Lace, crochet and Suzhou embroidery from China, a form of artisan skill that is disappearing. “When I asked for their help,” shares Bi, “he local craftswomen first dismissed my idea but once convinced, they loved taking part in it and were very proud.”
Detail of Stitched Urban Skin, showing the combination of ancient Chinese crafts applied to textiles with metal, LED and acrylic.
Scarlett Yang uses algae, sea water, and the colour pigments in marine microorganisms. The final result, Transient Materiality, is a kind of biodegradable plastic textile. In form it looks like a translucent lattice, reminds me of a creature from the abyss. The fluidity of this piece was inspired by the fluid movement of the Spirit of Ecstasy.
“I use technology and science to underpin my art pieces, which could be perceived as the opposite to art…”
– Scarlett Yang
Scarlett has always loved working with technology and to apply science and logic to his work. “I use technology to underpin my art pieces, which could be perceived as the opposite to art. Here for example,” she says, pointing at her sculpture, “I use the textiles made of algae to bring nature back to it.” Her sculpture feels light and ethereal, with imperfect edges that actually bring a lot of warmth to the piece.
This is not only a stunning piece to look at but also very very clever. The transparency of the sculpture is thanks to the fact that the biggest percentage of the composition of the material is water, bound with photosynthetic algae that are infused into it. Then, with a little bit of help from science, the liquid turns solid.
In Transient Materiality, Scarlett created a movement as if it was cloth wrapped around a model’s body.
The shape was inspired by her past in fashion, where she played a lot with experimental draping on models’ bodies. “For this piece, we casted a model’s body and then shaped this form [her sculpture] over it, as it would be if the body was moving around, and this is where its fluidity comes from.” Softer versions of this kind of creation by Scarlett have been used in photoshoots, worn by real models.
After their presentation in London earlier this month, the artworks are embarking on a global tour. The locations where the works will be exhibited are still to be announced so watch this space!
In 1994, the then three-year-old Sonia Gisa’s life was devastated by the genocide in the country of her birth, Rwanda. In the onslaught, her father was murdered and she and the rest of her family were forced to flee their home to escape the brutally ruthless soldiers. Last year, Sonia published her first book, Slaughter Baby, in which she shares the story of how she survived the horror of those years and became Miss Africa and an international top model. Author Elaine Sturgess interviewed her for I-M Intelligent Magazine.
The consequences of the genocide prevailed for many years. Sonia survived not only the guns of the militia but severe hunger and illness. During her childhood and teenage years, she was haunted by those experiences, with traumatic periods of PTSD. Despite this, Sonia’s survival instincts, determination and courage motivated her to find a purpose in life and to realise her dreams. She escaped Rwanda and move to Europe, where she studied and worked her way into fashion and modelling. Now a top model with over 12 years of experience, Sonia’s outlook on living is an extraordinary testament to the human spirit. Her indomitable understanding of life and death has given her a sense of self and resilience that transcend the limitations we often place on ourselves. In talking to Sonia about her life and experiences, one of the startling realisations is that she has an incredible capacity to find perspectives that most of us might find hard to comprehend, given the level of violence she experienced.
E.S: How was the experience of writing your own story?
S.G: I like to put my thoughts and imagination on paper, so writing has always been something that I’ve enjoyed – but this time the experience was different – I definitely didn’t realise beforehand what an immense therapeutic effect it would have on me to talk about my personal experiences.
E.S: Your book recounts harrowing experiences that most of us cannot imagine, how have they influenced the person you have become?
S.G: My story literally shaped every single layer of my personality so it’s hard to know where to start. Most importantly, it helped me drop all of my fears because when you face something unbelievably terrifying in your childhood, it either helps you build the ability to cope with fears easily or you become a victim of that experience your entire life. I believe that either way you are the one who chooses the path you are going to follow.
E.S: As a child, you were aware that often girls were “unwanted” because families preferred a male child. Has that made it more important to you to succeed as a woman?
S.G: Fortunately that was not my case. As a child, I knew my father loved me very much – and that was enough for me. I did have some insecurities that pushed me to try to impress, for example by choosing difficult studies, but I quickly realised that I wanted to be myself no matter what. Being myself was the most important thing, more than gender identity.
Sonia managed to escape Rwanda and moved to Europe, where she studied and worked her way into fashion and the very top of the modelling world.
E.S: How far do you think that situation has changed in Rwanda almost 30 years on?
S.G: There have been major changes in Rwanda. To start with, change came at a very slow pace – and then “boom!”, Rwanda became one of the countries developing really fast and now many look upon us as an example. Moreover, the percentage of women in politics has hit a new record as the highest in the world these last few years. Hopefully, it will stay that way.
E.S: How have your experiences shaped your view on violence based on ethnicity and race? How does Europe compare?
S.G: Violence is always horrific, in the case of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, it was a result of long-term propaganda linked to colonisation. The human race must learn from their mistakes and prevent that from ever happening again. It’s difficult for me to make a direct comparison with Europe because my experiences were deeply personal and I haven’t lived in Europe in a time of war, but I recognise that here there have been some of the darkest episodes of mankind, such as the Jewish and Armenian genocides. I believe the same lessons have to be learned by both continents.
“On my very first fashion shoot, I felt enraptured. There was nowhere else I would’ve wanted to be. I could free my mind completely and simply live in the moment.”
– Sonia Gisa
E.S: The loss you experienced was devastating, did you ever think that you wouldn’t survive?
S.G: Never. I never had any doubt even when I was young. I have always gone through life knowing that the best was yet to come.
E.S: There is a particularly heart-breaking and tender moment in your story when your father’s remains are discovered, and you describe washing his bones ready for burial. Can I ask what the emotional impact of that was?
S.G: It was shocking. On one hand, I felt a sense of relief that he was going to be buried with dignity. On the other, I couldn’t imagine that the amazing image of a wonderful father I had in my head could be just the remains that were in that trash bag. I heard one day somewhere that love is the only feeling that can travel through time… that helped me to see that incident more like one last step I needed to grieve. He is still with me in my heart.
E.S: The life wisdom and understanding you talk about in your book are inspirational, is that a direct reflection of your experience?
S.G: It is a combination of many things: experience, observation, vision and the strong will I had to break through and transform iron into gold – that’s the metaphor I really identify with, from The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. Do you know? If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi resulted in the death of 800,000 human beings,
E.S: Do you think the world has moved forward in its desire to address oppression and support countries like Rwanda?
S.G: The world is definitely going in the right direction on that subject, as proved by the recent movement Black Lives Matter, but in terms of supporting countries like Rwanda, I strongly believe that the main and most important foundation has to come from inside countries themselves; and then the rest of the world can help.
E.S: How far do you think a movement like Black Lives Matter can go towards helping Rwanda?
S.G: In many ways, Black Lives Matter raised the world’s awareness of the inequalities that reign globally towards people of colour, and Rwandans are included. It also helped to shine a spotlight on different countries with different issues.
E.S: You were very determined to breakthrough in the fashion industry. Tell us about your first job, how did it feel?
S.G: I had a feeling of rapture because for the first time I was able to free my mind and live in the moment. There isn’t any other place I would’ve wanted to be other than where I was at that moment in time. Discovering the fashion world made a huge impression on me; I love meeting all the creative people and being involved in that inventive world is imperative for me.
“Black Lives Matter raised awareness of the inequalities that reign globally towards people of colour, and Rwandans are included.”
– Sonia Gisa
E.S: It’s interesting that you picked the fashion industry which is notoriously punishing in its examination of appearance. Have you ever found that difficult?
S.G: Sure, I have had criticism coming my way about my appearance, but I have rarely given a thought to that. You have to be able to differentiate between constructive criticism and people who just want to throw their venom at you – and I know how to manage that.
E.S: You love to travel, and obviously lockdown prevented that for some time. Have you been planning places to visit now that most restrictions have been lifted?
S.G: Ha-ha, the list is long! I have to catch up with all the destinations I missed during the lockdown. I’m fascinated with South America and Asia, so firsts on the list: Mexico, Bali, Peru, Vietnam…
E.S: Writers and books have inspired you on your journey. Who are your favourite writers and what words of wisdom have they given you?
S.G: Reading is my favourite pastime and I have been influenced by many different writers and books. If I could pick what I have been into recently, I would say The Allegory of the Cave by Plato. I like his philosophical vision about how humans perceive reality; and Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, a very inspiring life journey about spirituality, combined with a Hollywood success story.
E.S: What message do you want people to take from your own book?
S.G: Dream big, follow your dreams. Your past and background don’t define you – start where you are. Nothing is impossible, and remember to stay humble.
Slaughter Baby is available on Amazon as Paperback £11.99, Kindle £9.99 and audiobook (free with Audible trial).
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