Sara Cwynar’s monograph, Glass Life, is striking from the moment one encounters its spine on a shelf. It would not be out of place with bound periodicals in a library. It’s vibrant red leatherette, matching fore-edges, and white stamped text create an immediate relationship with the aesthetic of the ‘archive’. The cover, with its glossy, hyper-saturated studio images of roses tipped-in, vaguely recalls a 1980s photo album in its style, though initially it’s hard to place why.

In little more than a decade, the internet has become an integral part of the human experience, where almost everything we do happens within one of a few channels that we’re told are meant for us to learn, connect, and express. Platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok are creating culture, like a machine, they’re generators of trends and challenges with an impact felt across industries and in social spaces – and one of the most noticeable shifts in mainstream consumerism is the current obsession surrounding everything “vintage” (but I guess only if you’re on THAT side of Tik Tok). What has resulted is the commodification of vintage - not just as it relates to fashion - but as a concept, aesthetic, and lifestyle.

Is Bottega Veneta yet another Luxury Brand with an ethos driven by consumer culture, or are they a brand genuinely aspiring to become the forefront of fashion sustainability?

When we think about ourselves in the digital matrix, it can become difficult to remember that it’s not all made for us. The Truman Show is a fascinating project because we collectively have not caught up to an evitable reality in our own online existence that transcends in the film’s narrative.

On the 17th of March, the elusive exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s 'Infinity Mirror Rooms' was miraculously in front of us. And amid all the hype and excitement, I was left feeling guiltily underwhelmed.

One might be disappointed if expecting the title ‘Artery’ of Allison Katz’s exhibition, to refer to the fleshy conduit which carries rich blood from the heart - and its associated symbolism (as the exhibition catalogue analogously declares). However, after experiencing Katz’s exhibition of paintings at The Camden Art Centre, I felt a more apt reading of the title to be Art-ery: as in trick-ery, Tom fool-ery, or artfulness. For this is a show very much of one-liners, of jokes, puns, playing with materials and random associations.

What happens when the effect of seeing an artwork is such that you look away all the while aching to look at it again? But this time, you SEE. You take it in. You understand it. You shudder with realisation. And then, you smile in cognizance.

This is closest to describing what I felt while visiting the recent exhibition at Tate Modern – Surrealism Beyond Borders.

Warli art - named after the Warli tribe - is an ancient folk art found mainly in the state of Maharshatra, India. ‘Warli’ is derived from the word ‘Warla’ which means ‘a piece of land’. According to historians, Warli Art’s origins can be traced back to 2,500 – 3000 BC.

HBO’s Euphoria immediately caught eyes with its unforgettable glittery neon makeup looks, but the makeup serves a purpose much larger than merely pushing beauty norms. In fact, apart from the iconic cinematography and music, makeup is a crucial pillar of Euphoria’s success and is used as a tool to drive the plot forward by visualizing the inner transformation of the characters.

It was not so long ago when I went to Derby Museum and Art Gallery to see the Hayward gallery touring exhibition of Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask. This Article includes great resources to learn about Claude Cahun, as well as multilayered exhibition critique/greater dialogue on Art Institutions.

One of the most popular forms of folk paintings in India are the Madhubani paintings (pronounced as Ma-dhu-ba-ni) which are also referred to as Mithila Paintings. Deriving its name from the place of its origin - Madhubani, a district in the Mithila region of north Bihar, India - its speciality lies in the depiction of people, nature and deities from ancient epics.

The relationship between the artwork and the viewer is being fed by curiosity: We’re analysing the Aerobes as the Aerobes analyse us. This work challenges the traditional idea of art being an object entirely - the work almost transcends art, as the aerobes can be argued as a species in their own right.

Saatchi Gallery’s ‘London Grads Now’ exhibition is an eclectic mixture of work from MA Students who are rising through the ashes of a post pandemic world. Cherrypicked from some of London’s most prolific Art Schools, the exhibition features student’s work from Chelsea College of Art, Goldsmiths, Kingston University, Camberwell College of Art, the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, and the Slade School of Art.

This article looks to explore a trend in cinematic releases from the last five years that can help to navigate late capitalism’s ‘turn from belief to aesthetics’ (Fisher, 2009: 5). These films include: The Neon Demon (2016), Revenge (2017), Mandy (2018), Climax (2018), Assassination Nation (2018), and Uncut Gems (2019). The presence of cinematography overwhelms the screen, leading to the subversion of conventional narrative structures.

Over three years ago, whilst one month deep into my Drama and English degree, I learnt an important lesson: theatre is hard to define. I was analysing Shakespeare and understanding its dramatic value, and studying the Fluxus movement and seeing its theatricality too. Theatre can’t be boxed in, despite, ironically, often taking place in walled up and square spaces.

On a grey day in North Yorkshire, I sit watching a buffering ring rotate around the screen, eagerly awaiting the start of Larry Achiampong’s, screen-based work, Reliquary 2. Suddenly, I’m greeted by a lonesome space voyager, dressed in a bright green space suit, a cap of blue and yellow and holding a seashell close to his ear.

Today marks a month since we took over Moseley Hive for an extended weekend packed full of a variety of Art Events. Here’s a chronological rundown of the weekend’s events in case you missed it!

Featured in a solo show titled ‘There’s No Place I’d Rather Be’ at T-Street Gallery, Place manages to explore the queering of domesticity through a quietly comical manipulation of material. As a Birmingham based artist and senior technician at Birmingham City University, Place is always someone I have admired for their use of material and encouragement for students to do the same.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, creatives and theatre makers have been finding new ways of putting their work online and making live theatre available to watch from home. At the very start of the pandemic, I was a first year student studying dance and drama, and I felt incredibly reluctant to move my work into the digital sphere. However, despite the many difficulties my fellow students and I came up against over the last year, I feel I may have actually learnt something from creating and viewing theatre online. 

If you were lucky enough to be in Birmingham City Centre on August bank holiday weekend, you couldn’t have missed the wide array of public art events taking place in the heart of the City. All part and parcel of Biennial Arts Festival Birmingham Weekender, the city saw theatrical juggling, a giant puppet, mile long ribbons, a Drag Queen on a gold bike, masses of confetti, men on stilts, as well as a handful of many other exciting creative acts and performances.