This May, Firsts London returns to the Saatchi Gallery with a burst of colour, curiosity, and craftsmanship. The theme? Books in Bloom – a celebration of all things botanical in the world of rare books.
From ancient herbals to avant-garde floral art books, over a hundred rare book dealers from around the globe will gather to showcase the intertwined histories of books and botany. It’s the literary companion to the Chelsea Flower Show, blooming just down the road – but with more vellum and fewer tulips.
Expect everything from medicinal manuscripts to pressed flower albums, poetic tributes to roses, and gorgeously illustrated plant encyclopaedias. Botanical books tell a story far richer than just plants on a page. They chart centuries of exploration, science, superstition, art – and obsession.
Once used to treat fevers and fend off spirits, early plant drawings became tools of classification, trade, and desire. By the Victorian age, they were full-blown objects of beauty, their detailed engravings and watercolours capturing the global explosion of flora newly ‘discovered’ and imported.
Justin Croft Antiquarian has brought an exquisite edition of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal,…
Britain's most famous luxury car marque brings woodland magic to London Craft Week
At this year’s London Craft Week (12–18 May 2025), Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is bringing a captivating artistic display that reimagines the British countryside in exquisite detail and craftsmanship. Created by artisans at the marque’s Goodwood headquarters, the triptych artwork draws on the flora and fauna of the British Isles, presenting a woodland scene across three […]
Mesmerising mythology at a major new sculpture exhibition in Norfolk
Mythological beasts stalk the grounds of Houghton Hall – in a good way. The stately home in Norfolk is presenting Stephen Cox: Myth, an absorbing new exhibition of the work of the British sculptor. Arranged across the park gardens and interiors, this is the most comprehensive retrospective ever of the Royal Academician’s sculpture. Covering more […]
Vacheron Constantin celebrates Scottish craftmanship
Making Modernism is the first major UK exhibition devoted to women artists working in Germany in the early 20th century. Although less familiar than their male counterparts, these artists were central to the development and dissemination of modernism. The show includes 65 paintings and works on paper primarily by Paula Modersohn- Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin, with additional works by Erma Bossi and Jacoba van Heemskerck.
Seen through the lens of these artists, key themes of modernism such as self-portraiture, still-life and urban and rural scenes are revaluated, with the attention focused on the female body, childhood, and maternal experience, themes that resonate with today’s concerns about identity, representation and belonging. The exhibition is arranged thematically, beginning with Ourselves and Others, where self-portraits and portraits, show the increasing participation of women artists in public life, revealing their crucial role in creating and sustaining the networks that supported various aspects of emergent modernism in Germany.
Portrait of Marianne Werefkin by Erma Bossi, c. 1910. Oil on cardboard, 71.6 x 58 cm. Gabriele Munter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich.
Paintings include Erma Bossi’s Portrait of Marianne Werefkin, 1910 (Gabriele Munter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich) and Gabriele Münter’s Portrait of Anna Roslund, 1917 (Leicester Museums and Galleries, UK). The Century of the Child, titled after Swedish writer Ellen Key’s influential 1900 publication, explores how each of the artists depicted children. Although domestic themes were an established genre, modernist treatments of such subjects depart from sentimental works to explore melancholy, tension, curiosity, and unfulfilled desire. Many artworks reflect the fact that women artists’ desire to work was frequently tested by the social expectation that demanded they marry and devote themselves to producing a family. Paintings and drawings include Werefkin’s Twins, 1909 (Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona), Kollwitz’s Woman with Dead Child, 1903 (Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Köln) Modersohn-Becker’s Girl with Child, 1902 (Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague), and Münter’s Portrait of a Boy (Willi Blabb), 1908/09 (Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich).
Mother with Child on her Arm, Nude II, by Paula Modershohn-Becker, autumn 1906. Oil on canvas, 80 x 59 cm. Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U.
Sites of Intimacy delves into the inner lives of Modersohn-Becker and Kollwitz, further exploring maternal instinct as well as the female body and eroticism. In these works, the mother and child theme is secularised and modernised to reflect the physicality and psychological depth of the choices surrounding motherhood. Images established through masculine representations of the female nude are overturned. Here we find Kollwitz’s Love Scene I, c.1909/1910 (Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Köln), Ottilie Reyaender’s Beta naked, c. 1900 (Worpsweder Kunststiftung Friedrich Netzel, Worpsweder Kunsthalle) and Modersohn-Becker’s Mother with Child on her Arm, Nude II, autumn 1906 (Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund) and Self-portrait as a Standing Nude with Hat, summer 1906 (Paula- Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen, on loan from a private collection).
City and Country: Journeys and Migrations presents paintings of urban life and explores changing roles for women in a variety of contexts, including the artists’ search for refuge in rural areas to produce art that celebrated the natural beauty of the countryside.
Portrait of Anna Roslund by Gabriele Münter, 1917. Oil on canvas, 94 x 68 cm. Leicester Museums & Galleries.
The final part of the exhibition considers the significant role of still life in the work of these artists. The concept of “still lives” suggests quiet moments of reflection and meditation recorded by the artists in their letters, diaries, and journals.
Making Modernism The Royal Academy of Arts. Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD 12th November 2022 to 12th February 2023 For tickets, visit HERE.
Words: Lavinia Dickson-Robinson
Opening picture: Marianne Werefkin, Twins, 1909. Tempera on paper, 27.5 x 36.5 cm. Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona.
Vacheron Constantin celebrates Scottish craftmanship
Just over a year ago, the luxury watchmaking Swiss brand Vacheron Constantin opened its first boutique in Edinburgh, just a stone-throw from the castle. To celebrate its first anniversary, the Maison has commissioned five local artisans to create a collection of unique items to celebrate traditional crafts by exploring the themes of place, time and heritage and celebrating traditional crafts. Eight of these works would be permanently on display at the boutique.
From the beginning of its journey more than two hundred and sixty years ago, Vacheron Constantin has championed artistry and craftmanship. From the unrivalled dexterity of its master watchmakers to the highly skilled of its artisans, the Maison has been passing on all the knowledge for nearly three centuries through the different generations. The constant values that have permeated through could be crystallised in very few words: One of Not Many. It was this idea that was shared with the five artists commissioned to create bespoke works for its Edinburgh boutique, housed in a historic building from the 18th– century.
The first of these artists are the husband-and-wife team known as Chalk Plaster. Ffion and Steven Blench are devoted to restoration. They work with Scagliola plaster, a medium that appeared in Europe in the 1590s and that for many years was used only for works destined to Royalty. The technique relies on just a few simple natural ingredients: gypsum plaster, pearl glue and pigments. Its simplicity is deceitful. In the skilled hands of a master craftsman, scagliola plaster can become a material as exquisite and beautiful as the most exotic of marbles.
“The Provenance project was particularly fun. Using hand processed pigments is always a bit of an adventure. They contain all sorts of impurities which can have surprising consequences in the final pieces.”
– Steven Blench
For this collaboration, the artisan couple made a gorgeous scagliola side table pigmented with a roiling stracciatella of dark and light tones. Steven told me that the materials for this piece were gathered during a six-month restoration project on the Adam Dome at General register House in Edinburgh – a grand classical building designed by Robert Adam to house the treasured records of Scotland’s history. “The dark is airborne soot from Edinburgh’s coal fires which had accumulated on the back of the ceiling since its construction in 1785,” he explains. “The fine soot produced a jet-black pigment which we contrasted with a lighter one made from old lime plaster finish which came from the interior of the dome. This material had been supplied by an Edinburgh lime merchant called William Laing during the 1780s.”
The very nature of these pigments means that often, surprises come out at the very end. “In this particular piece tiny fragments of iron were present, which oxidised during the making process creating small bursts of orange within the surface,” Steven explained. “In a way, the table is a kind of time capsule holding all these layers of Edinburgh’s history. These materials were refined, combined, cast, and painstakingly polished. As a complement, Chalk designed is a series of bespoke coasters, inspired by the singular form of the master watchmaker’s rose engine lathe. They were also cast from scagliola and pigmented with soot collected from the same source.
The second artisan commissioned by Vacheron Constantin is the young ceramist Hazel Frost. Hazel studied in Central St Martins and, upon graduating in 2013, she opened her own studio in Edinburgh. Inspired by the Scottish landscape, she works with a variety of ceramics, from locally foraged clays to fine porcelain to create tactile pieces that explore the natural elements – water, minerals, plant and animal residue – that make the clay itself over millions of years of geological evolution. “Pottery has an inherent sense of time and place,” she tells me, “from the clays which are dug up from the ground beneath us to the glazes that are made from the ash of our fires. Each found material results in nuances of texture and colour that only reveal themselves once they have been fired in a kiln.”
Hazel Frost’s series of traditional tea bowls and carafe (top shelf) and the two coil-built vessels (bottom shelf).
Using foraged clays from six regions of Scotland, Hazel threw and glazed a series of fine traditional tea bowls and a carafe for the Provenance Collection. Each clay, dug from sites including Leith Walk and Blair Adam, brings with it a different makeup of ingredients, tones and textures, distinctively resonant of the ground in which it was found. “This collaboration allowed me the space to explore the materials around me, to compare the variations in clay from different localities. Using simple pottery techniques that have been around since the early days of humanity, is an element that connects me to the craft, to those potters who have come before me and to the land around me.” She also produced a pair of dramatic coil-built vessels, which required a lot of patience and many weeks to meticulously layer and handshape. One is smooth and burnished, almost lustrous; the other, painstakingly chiselled prior to firing. The surfaces of both pieces have been smoke-glazed with burnt leaves gathered from around her home in Edinburgh.
Textiles is another media that Vacheron Constantin wanted to explore within this Provenance collection. And so they invited weaver and designer Araminta Campbell. Araminta’s interest in textiles comes from her childhood, thanks to the tartan she saw at special family occasions and her love of the woodlands, glens and lochs near her home in Aberdeenshire, which have inspired her throughout her career.
Araminta’s artisans produced a stunning fabric using traditional looms and British alpaca which was used to produce soft furnishings for the boutique.
Araminta was struck by Vacheron Constantin’s remarkable guilloché work, by the skill, artistry and technical mastery required to create these precise patterns and textures, the way the light plays on the finely worked surfaces of the metal. In an effort to emulate this dramatic relief, she developed a complex woven design, incorporating twenty shafts of contrasting yarn delineated by curves that arc softly through the fabric’s structure. As a result, the fabric has an extraordinary depth, to the point that it almost shimmers. Using traditional looms and the finest sustainably sourced British alpaca, her artisans have woven this design into a stunning textile, used to create a unique series of soft furnishings for the boutique. “Like Vacheron Constantin guilloché work, my designs are works of art,” says Araminta, “I translate stories into textiles which stand the test of time. I admire the skill and mastery that goes into each and every Vacheron Constantin timepiece and feel that we have the same ethos in creating one-off pieces using centuries old skills and traditions.”
Very few materials are as tactile and evocative as wood. The scars on their bark, the knots and cracks in their trunk and branches are all a reflection of lives that are bound to a place, but which flow through time. With a lifespan of 800 years, there are few trees with more character than the Scottish oak. Methods Studio is a company of multidisciplinary creatives and craftsmen working in the hidden depths of the West Lothian woods.
The umbrella made of Scottish oak and the larger of the two Codex mirrors created by Method Studio, founded by architect Marisa Giannasi and woodworker Callum Robinson.
For this project, they showed the scope of their creativity by making two pieces. The first, an umbrella stand for the boutique, crafted from local Scottish oak. Its tapering 12-sided form drawing from the opening of an umbrella and, from deep within, its elegantly interlaced spokes. Their other contribution to the Provenance collection is influenced by Creag a’ Chaisteil, or Castle Rock, seat of Edinburgh’s legendary stronghold, which casts a massive and ancient shadow on the Vacheron Constantin boutique. This enduring slab of volcanic geology is the inspiration for the stratified form of Codex Mirrors created by the Method team, one large and one small. The brass threads that weave their way around the forms give the pieces their name. These find their roots in the secret codes that have for centuries passed between Scottish Royalty – for good and ill – their careful placement evoking the letters “V” and “C” in binary.
Another geological wonderous material that couldn’t be amiss in the Provenance collection is glass. Although volcanic magma, meteor and lightning strike can form glass in nature, the vast majority of it is industrially made. Sand, soda ash, limestone, and extreme heat. For nearly four thousand years, glassmaking is about as close to alchemy as we have come. It is estimated, however, that a single glass bottle would take over a million years to decompose in the environment. This, in turn, means there is a lot of lonely, discarded glass out there waiting for a second life. Vacheron Constantin went to Costa Rican born artist and designer Juli Bolaños-Durman to create a glass piece to complete this unprecedented collection.
Juli’s sculptural piece, made of reclaimed glass, is a reflection of her love for colour.
After studying in San José, New York and Venice, Juli chose Edinburgh as the location for her studio. Like in any other city, she realised she could find here as much discarded glass as she could dream of. By collecting, modifying and repurposing these found objects, Juli found a means to give them new lives, creating precious, sustainable, charismatic objects which each tell a story of redemption. For this commission, she produced a unique sculptural piece that displays her characteristic Costa Rican love of vibrant colour, composed of just three tones and three fragments of abandoned Edinburgh glass. The work draws inspiration from the original stained-glass windows in Vacheron Constantin’s boutique and the elegant city beyond. Speaking to you Juli, she shared with me some of her notes, showing how her methodology aligned with the Maison’s “Past, Present & Future” depicted metaphorically. “Its heritage and respect for tradition are the values I took from Vacheron’s past. From the present, I took the optimism and the idea of working with what we have to make it beautiful. For the future, I wanted to reflect its sense of innovation and the idea of leaving a better Earth than we found, as a good ancestor would do.”
Juli also kindly explained to me the creative process for this beautiful piece, “After visiting the boutique and researching the values of Vacheron Constantin, I decided to create a glass sculpture that visualises the passage of time, using found glass collected from the community and embellished by using heritage hand-cutting techniques local to the area. The markings on the glass and the colour combination are directly linked to the boutique’s stained-glass windows dating back almost 200 years.”
The artists had the chance to meet and learn a bit about what the others were making. “We were all creating something new from our usual practice, so it was a great surprise to see how all the objects came together.”
Discover the Provenance Collection at the Vacheron Constantin boutique in Edinburgh.
Vacheron Constantin 3 Frederick Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2EY Tel. 0131 322 1980 To visit the boutique’s website, click HERE. Monday – Saturday 9am – 6.30pm Sunday 11am – 5pm
With his slightly husky, silky evocative voice, easy smile and casual manner, singer-songwriter and pianist Reuben James has become one of the most exciting artists to have emerged in recent years on the music scene.
Reuben grew up in a musical house in Bromford, Birmingham, with parents who loved music and had a huge vinyl collection. He listened to Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and reggae and started playing the piano at the age of just three – by himself, without any formal tuition. By his teenage years, Reuben had developed a fascination for jazz and was playing with the charity responsible for Symphony Hall and Town Hall in Birmingham (now rebranded B:Music). Reuben remembers those days with true fondness. “B:Music gave me my first real platform and a chance to showcase my skills. They had me playing after Jamie Cullum and they even let me open for saxophonist Wayne Shorter at the Town Hall. With them I learnt about the craft of performance and how to interact with an audience.”
His success though is not just based on his natural talent or his discipline (he used to practise piano up to six hours a day) but as he says, “There are many other factors to consider,” he adds, “The most important to me is to have personality and stories to tell, so your music connects with people at an emotional level, but it takes a very long time to realise who you are. In my case, I found a community of artists that inspire and push me to be a better musician.” It was the influence of another artist, John Legend, whom he saw performing at the Birmingham Academy, which encouraged him to pursue a career in music.
It takes a very long time to realise who you are. In my case, I found a community of artists that inspire and push me to be a better musician.
–Reuben James
His talent earned him a scholarship to Trinity College of Music, which, to his mum’s dismay, he gave up to go on tour with an up-and-coming artist he’d met. Reuben famously said to his friends that he had a gut feeling this guy was going to be big. That guy was Sam Smith, with whom he co-wrote songs for his four million-selling album The Thrill of It All. A couple of years later, Reuben found himself performing at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and sitting next to Stevie Wonder. Since, he has worked with living legends such as Nile Rodgers, Joni Mitchell, Liam Payne and Bonnie Raitt among many others. My colleague Papa, a devotee of jazz, defines Reuben’s music as “an intricate fusion of a classical jazzy style, made with authentic original instruments but also sweetly blended with a contemporary sensational sound. Like a blast from the past, a journey into sound, played by the greats, but in a 21st-century studio, with state-of-the-art equipment”.
Reuben shows his range and variety of skill throughout all his albums. Papa mentions how he feels the influence of some of the old-school jazz gods, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker but also detects some new-school flavours, which make him think of D’Angelo, Justin Timberlake or Anderson Paak, even Michael Jackson, particularly in the Adore album. Reuben agrees, “I grew up listening to Michael and love his music. He has definitely influenced my work, especially my singing, where I like introducing falsettos; him and classics like Robin Thicke and Marvin Gaye.”
In music, timing is very important. From measuring beats to when I improvise on stage and get completely lost in time, a kind of zen feeling that I am always chasing.
–Reuben James
Even if his singing has been received with open arms by his adoring fans, Reuben still sees himself as an instrumentalist with jazz and soul at the heart of everything he writes. As such, he feels heavily influenced by the likes of Robert Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, and his piano style pays homage to musicians such as Ahmad Jamal “and some of the jazz guys that really get me going in the morning”, he adds. Reuben was mentored by artists such as Roy Ayers, Jon Batiste and Eric Lewis. “Education is everything,” he states, “so I want to get involved and work with the next generation, especially in Birmingham, and with B:Music.”
This self-taught talent, who by his own admission, “can’t read music”, left critics and music enthusiasts with their jaws on the floor with his debut album, Adore, released in 2019. The eponymous track, maybe the most popular, “came to me in a dream,” Reuben shares, “well, rather that time when you are kind of both awake and asleep. I got out of bed and recorded the whole thing there and then. It was mental.” It is worth mentioning the last track in the album, “Outro”, which sounds like a poem, but he explains “is just my friend Michael Mwenso, who used to feature with James Brown from a young age and is one of my most important mentors. I asked him to send me a voice memo speaking about jazz. I liked it so much that I just chopped it up a little bit and added it at the end of the album.”
From left to right, Reuben’s albums Adore (2019), Slow Down (2020) and Tunnel Vision (2021).
From Adore (2019), to Slow Down (2020), an album conceived during lockdown, which received general critical acclaim. “I had moved back with my parents as my life dramatically slowed down,” he explains. “I wrote the album mostly to help me relax and heal and I thought that if it helped me, it could help other people at such a difficult time.” By the time his third album, Tunnel Vision, was released in 2021, the world had gone back to some kind of normality and one can feel that effervescent mood in the songs. “Tunnel Vision is like a mixtape of loads of new kinds of vibey singles that have been weighing on me. I’m not stuck in one style. I want to experiment and try new things and if people don’t like it, so be it.” Well, people loved it and so did the critics, who have openly praised the album and Reuben for his top instrumental talent and the skill with which he has ventured into a jazzy nu-soul R&B style.
Hearing how influenced Reuben’s work is by great artists of the past, Papa wonders what he makes of the mainstream music that most of the youth listen to these days. “I am not really into that scene; not in a bad way, it is just that I don’t listen to much radio pop, I am an old soul so I am into different stuff, but some of the mainstream music I hear is very good. I like bands like Khruangbin and Thee Sacred Souls.” Reuben particularly likes the jazz-influenced R&B that is coming out of America these days. “Artists such as Kamasi, Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin. That’s why I feel that maybe my music is more appreciated out there.”
Reuben has just finished recording Sam Smith’s new album and is currently working with several other artists such as Tom Misch, Marcus Mumford and Disclosure.
For the last few years, Reuben has been a friend of the luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet, and as such, played at many of its private events as well as larger gigs, such as the party it threw in London for the 50th anniversary of the iconic Royal Oak watch. “It doesn’t really feel like work when I come to AP house [London] to play, it feels more like visiting friends and family,” he comments. “Also, it is kind of fitting, a musician partnering up with a watch brand. In music, timing is very important. From measuring beats to when I improvise on stage and get completely lost in time, a kind of zen feeling that I am always chasing.” His rich history and lineage in jazz music allows Reuben to transport his audience to different times, different worlds. Listening to him playing, I certainly feel that way, as if suspended in time – “suspended chords are my favourite” – he comments.
Reuben has just finished recording Sam Smith’s new album and is currently working with several other artists such as Tom Misch, Marcus Mumford and Disclosure, to mention but a few. As if this wasn’t enough, he reveals to us that he has just finished writing a new album, working with New York-based producer Carrtoons, and plans to release it either end of this year or early in 2023. He looks very proud when he says, “This album is groovy, very cool, a bit more fun than the previous ones. I think it has some of the best stuff I’ve ever made.” He is not sure about the name yet but Papa presses on a bit and he shares, “It may be called Champagne Kisses but that may change.” The celebratory title could be owed to the fact that Reuben’s first child is due in just a few weeks. Definitely an occasion for champagne and kisses.
I want to play in bigger venues, make better music. I want to push myself to be the best musician I can be…
–Reuben James
Alongside this new album, Reuben is set to release his first ever collection of solo piano music. Piano Love 1 is a five-track EP based around the theme of love. It features a selection of music recorded at his home studio in South-East London. The repertoire includes Reuben’s version of the Bob Dylan’s classic “Make You Feel My Love” as well as three original compositions. A restlessly creative spirit, Reuben is determined to keep developing and growing as an artist. “Within the next five years, I’d like to reach three, five, even 10 times as many people as I do at present with my music,” he shares. “I want to play in bigger venues, make better music. I want to push myself to be the best musician I can be.”
Piano Love 1 is out on December 2nd.
Track list:
Love At Christmas Time (Reuben James) A Mother’s Love (Reuben James) Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan) I’m Through With Love (Kahn/Livingston/Malneck) Love From The Other Side (Reuben James)
Reuben’s recently released Tunnel Vision mixtape is available HERE and 2020’s Slow DownHERE.
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.”
