Latest posts
“I Can’t Afford to be Boring”: A Conversation with Novelist Katharina Volkmer
Born in Germany but writing in English, Katharina Volckmer is one of a handful of female contemporary writers (another being Missouri Williams) who still loves to antagonise the reader and shatter a few taboos along the way. Her first novella The Appointment—published by Fitzcarraldo in 2020 and recently brought to the stage by Call My…
A Hot and Fragrant Rule-Breaking Mango Rasam to Start the Summer As You Mean to Go On
There are too many tenets in cooking; it shouldn’t be this way. Thinking in a certain, rigid manner about cooking stresses me out and renders me irascible, so I make rasam to remind myself of the volatility of the act and also to remember what my mother often says about making rasam, cooking, and life…
Myles Igwebuike’s Vision for Nigeria at the London Design Biennale
Nigeria arrives at the 5th edition of the London Design Biennale, opening on 5 June 2025, with Hopes and Impediments, curated and designed by Nigerian-American designer and researcher Myles Igwebuike. This year’s Biennale theme, ‘Surface Reflections,’ conceived by Artistic Director Dr Samuel Ross MBE, invites participants to explore how personal histories inform identity and practice….
A Restaurant Guide to Brno in the Czech Republic
Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, sits at the crossroads of Austria, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, and Poland, and like most Czech food bears all of these influences on the food available in its centre, as well as a few more for good measure. It’s a couple of hours from Prague, has a…
Interviews
Anousha Payne’s ‘Murmurations’ Breathes Ne...
Set within the vaulted, echoing chambers of a 13th-century Byzantine cistern beneath Zeyrek Çinili Hamam, Murmurations marks the first in a new series of exhibitions hosted at this historic site in Istanbul. London-based artist Anousha Payne, whose hybrid sculptural forms weave together myth and memory, presents a body of work shaped by her study of…
After Representing Lebanon in Venice, Mounira Al Solh Brings...
Mounira Al Solh’s solo exhibition, Stray Salt, on view at Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Beirut until 1 August 2025, marks the artist’s homecoming after representing Lebanon at the 60th Venice Biennale. In Beirut’s downtown port district, a site fraught with history and trauma, Al Solh probes and rewrites the stories that have long defined women’s roles…
An Interview With Filmmaker Beatrice Minger: the Story of Ei...
If to some people E.1027 might sound like a bug to be avoided or an additive in food, architecture fans will smile in recognition. This is the name of the house in France’s Côte d’Azur designed by lovers Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici in the late twenties. The house, its architects and its legacy is…
The Best Contemporary Art Spaces in Marseille
In recent years, Marseille, France’s sun-drenched, graffiti-covered port city, has rapidly emerged as a fashionable hub in the region, drawing both national and international tourists along with a slew of new nomadic residents. This influx of visitors has sparked valid debate, with gentrification – and specifically “Airbnbisation” – bringing its usual mix of pros and…
Reading List: Five New Books to Read This Month
Just in time before the end of the month and the official start of summer, here are five books—mostly UK debuts, a couple somewhat farther afield—that will keep you reading while waiting for good weather. GUNK, Saba Sams Bloomsbury Circus, pp. 240 Set mostly around a grimy student club in Brighton—Gunk, the debut novel by…
Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough…
Ose Ekore is a Nigerian curator based in the UAE whose work explores African histories, contemporary art, and public engagement. He is co-founder of Bootleg Griot, a community-led library project, and serves as curatorial assistant at the Sharjah Art Foundation. Opening this weekend, on 1 June, and on view until 30 July 2025, Ekore curates…
Interview: In Conversation with Nicole Wermers
For over two decades, London-based German artist Nicole Wermers has honed a singular sculptural practice that navigates the intersection of design, architecture, and the social politics of space. Known for her precise juxtapositions of found and fabricated forms, Wermers explores the structures that shape urban life and the hierarchies that govern bodily presence within them….
Guides
Tirana and Durres: The Places to be in Europe Right Now
If there’s one country in Europe quietly roaring toward an economic boom, it’s Albania. Over the past decade, continental investors and sun-seekers alike have discovered this Balkan upstart, enticed by its untapped potential and warm hospitality. Perched on the Adriatic with toes dipped in the Ionian, Albania is just a 45-minute ferry hop from Corfu—and…
Available Works Returns to WSA with Rare Books, Music, and P...
This month, from 16-18 May, art book fair Available Works returns to New York for its fourth and most expansive iteration yet. The event will take over the 39th floor of 180 Maiden Lane for a weekend of printed matter, live music, art, and cultural programming. Presented by Something Special Studios* and Water Street Associates…
Queer East Festival Returns to London This April and May: 6 ...
For its sixth and most expansive edition to date, Queer East Festival returns to London this spring with a vibrant celebration of queer cinema, performance, and visual culture from East and Southeast Asia – and, for the first time, Central and South Asia. With over 100 titles and a bold new strand spotlighting diasporic stories…
Omar Kholeif’s Love Letter to London
I was guided to the concept of storying in 2012 while reading poet Kevin Young’s extraordinary collection, “The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness.” I was led there by my late mentor, the writer and artist, Jean Fisher while researching the trickster. Storying for Young is a seat of possibility—one where imagination can become…
Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson of Bokman and Dongnae Share Their Favourite Things
Bokman, a small neighbourhood Korean restaurant in Bristol’s (and Banksy’s) Stokes Croft, is serving some of the best food in the U.K. Dongnae, a new neighbourhood spot further north in Redlands, isn’t far behind. Both are the creation of chef-owners Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson whose culinary alliance was forged in Paris – at the…
What Is Pichwai?
Pichwai art is a detailed and devotional form of textile painting that began in the 17th century in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, India. This temple town became an important centre for the worship of Krishna, an Indian deity, particularly within the Pushtimarg sect of Vaishnavism, a branch of Hinduism. These intricately decorated textiles are traditionally hung behind…
The Best New Music Across the World, This Month
May doesn’t whisper – it strikes a chord. As spring pushes everything into bloom, music answers with urgency, depth and friction. Albums turn inward, festivals reimagine space and protests echo through the industry. It’s not just a month of releases – it’s a season of resistance, ritual and reinvention. And since last month, the pulse…
From The Archive
Meet Harris Dickinson, the Compelling Lead Actor of ‘B...
British actor Harris Dickinson plays the lead role in Eliza Hittman’s critically acclaimed Beach Rats, which chronicles a young man’s struggle with his sexuality over the course of a summer, amid the stultifying machismo of outer Brooklyn. Opening in select theatres on 24 November, the film follows Frankie, portrayed by Dickinson, as he roams the…
Interview: Ernesto Neto On Gravity, Togetherness & The ...
Since the 1990s, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has produced an inimitable body of work that is in equal parts informed by sensuality and spirituality. Inspired by the Brazilian Conceptualists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, as well as biomorphism, Minimalism and Arte Povera, Neto’s works engage all of our senses while asserting the human body as…
SC Exclusive: Notes on a Siren — a Film Essay by Justice Jam...
Director Justice Jamal Jones joins myth with modern themes of Black queerness and trans identity in their latest film, Notes on a Siren. Presented by Something Curated, and exclusively premiering on the site, the film was shot on location at Palm Heights in Grand Cayman. Jones expands on the thinking behind their mesmerising work below….