[SLAP]

‘Listen, I beg of you,’ cried the SAVAGE... ‘Lend me your ears’

ISSUE FOUR FREE SPEECH

SAVAGE

AUTUMN 2016 ‘Listen, I beg of you,’ cried the SAVAGE…‘lend me your ears’.

The relevance of Free Speech in 2016 empowering role of art within British prisons. hardly needs to be stated. Since we began Regulations on speech can actually facilitate preparing this edition the necessity of free rather than suppress debate according to expression has come to seem even more Charlie Macnamara, who considers the growth pressing, threatened by changes in the political of online discursive communities. Other articles landscape; meanwhile the so-called ‘Snoopers’ consider the implications of fusing conflicting Charter’ has passed, almost silently, into voices: Caycee Peskett-Hill tackles the problem British law. With this in mind, we open SAVAGE of importing cultural values across national Issue Four with a piece by filmmaker Tarquin borders, while Uri Inspector deliberates how Ramsay, whose conversations with Julian best to present the works of Shakespeare on Assange and ex-CIA analyst John Kiriakou feed the modern stage. into a dramatic exploration of the political and personal impacts of state surveillance. A final (if unexpected) recurring theme is that of vegetables, which crop up in Georgia Although Free Speech is our starting point, Herman’s photographs of squashed aubergines our writers have approached this theme in and watermelons, in Rosemary Moss’s surprising, often resonant ways: Ryan McMeekin ‘Freeze Peach’ lyrics and Nikita Singh’s poem looks at the recent US presidential election ‘Inappropriate Vegetable’. through the lyrics it provoked, while Beatrice Bacci investigates literature’s oral tradition from The attentive and generous work of our writers Ancient Greece to the present. A theme that here is itself a cause for optimism. By turns reverberates throughout the edition is silence, playful and provocative, their works are a which can be at times restrictive or liberating. celebration of expression itself. Diandra Şovăilescu suggests that the absence of speech in film can facilitate unexpected Until next time, conversations with its audiences, while Fleur Elkerton explores deeds over words in relation Alastair, Sophia, Charlie to female nudes. The nude is repurposed as a vehicle for female expression in Flora Thomas’s photographs and the paintings of Eleanor Johnson.

Several of these works contemplate who is allowed to speak and who can be heard, wondering how we can listen and respond more effectively to marginalised voices. Rosanna Ellul provides an illuminating insight into the c

o Journal Under Surveillance ...... 4 Freeze Peach ...... 7 Where East Meets West ...... 10 n Art Frieze’s London ...... 17 Art from the Inside ...... 20 Venus’s Violent Story ...... 22

Film Filming Hyper Reality ...... 28 Sex on Screen ...... 30 Silent Film: A Vocal Legacy ...... 34 SAVAGE

Music t The Soundtrack to the Presidential Election ...... 40 The Irrepressible Nina Simone ...... 42 Queen Christine ...... 44

Literature Dylan and the Bards ...... 49 Muted Confessions ...... 52 Monumentalising Thomas More . . . . . 56

Theatre In Yer Face Theatre ...... 60 Self-Fashion, Darling ...... 62 21st Century Shakespeare ...... 64 e

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SAVAGE

demonstrate how freedom to communicate subject. Even if we don’t know that we are in fact ‘underpins every structure of society, being watched at that moment, we internalise every idea, every law and every constitution’. the climate of surveillance and censor ourselves Parliamentary privilege enshrines in law the and each other. freedom of law-makers to hold genuinely unhampered debate: to limit the conversations To write a narrative of free speech that posits that can be held in parliament would be to governments as villains and citizens as victims limit the laws that can be written. Similarly, is an oversimplification: we all partake in this to degrade free communication is to clog and system and are complicit in strengthening inhibit the free flow and progression of ideas. it. We voluntarily give away our innermost information every day to social media and The knowledge that you are being watched messaging channels. When we join Facebook profoundly influences how you interact with or Google, we are under the impression that the world. Think of being in a classroom talking we are getting something for free; in fact, to a friend: does your conversation continue we, the consumer, have become the product. in the same confessional, teasing mode when Sixty percent of the revenues of the world’s you feel the shadow of the teacher’s presence six biggest tech companies come from selling behind you? Unhampered mass surveillance has this data to governments, advertisers and been legitimized in law since I started writing insurers. Last month Yahoo was outed for 5 this article. The so-called ‘Snoopers Charter’ scanning outgoing messages on behalf of the has now passed into law almost unnoticed by FBI. Our private conversations are making these the public, despite concerns from activists, companies very rich. Your insurance will go up the UN and a confederate of UK lawyers. For as a direct result of talking about a pregnancy the first time in history it is now legal for or illness on Facebook (as The New York the government to track anybody’s telephone, Times and many others have warned). computer, web history, smartphone location or even camera footage. Some surveillance The last thing I want is to come across as is necessary, to catch psychopaths and melodramatic, because this conversation is murderers. But effective intelligence gathering rooted in reality. However, it’s a reality that is categorically not the same thing as unlimited opposes the version of events that Adam Curtis mass surveillance. The breadth of this gaze this year has labelled the ‘HyperNormal’—the scarily approaches a real-life version of what ‘often completely fake’ reality disseminated by the seminal theorist of power Michael Foucault governments, financiers and tech companies— called ‘panopticism’. Based on a prison design which is why it is ignored as delusional or whereby all cells are visible to an observer in even histrionic. In 2016 we are beginning to a central tower, panopticism details how when see through this façade and look behind the someone is ‘subjected to a field of visibility’ screen of modern life, to train a spotlight on s/he ‘inscribes in himself the power relation’, its invasions and evasions. I wish I had had becoming a more obedient and productive more space in Free Speech Fear Free to

Journal 6 continue havingthisconversation. haphazard the way we go about it, we have to another person. No matter how unintelligible or by understood be to word word that the permits and pronouncing of act the enables even It rights’. all of right enabling freedom of communication is that book, the in mistake every made I which in interview an conducting and depth my of Julian Assange told 16-year-old me, totally out and whistle-blowersintheworld. largest the journalists investigative facilitating must hackers, of community for too, recognised Berlin, be research. and context detailed with underpinned stories presenting journalism, peer-funded independent, their in Intercept as such outlets News infinitely communication. private present towards steps simple signal and telegram like apps privacy, absolute guarantee never can they although seconds: 30 in download can anybody that softwares encryption are creating Technologists communities. resourceful infinitely those highlight to space this of rest the dedicate to like would I freely: speak to the ability along our at away chipping this resisting way, met I that groups the celebrate , and , Novara Media Democracy Now, The ‘ the fundamental are trailblazing are ‘ right’, 7 to give matters ‘ FREEZE PEACH’ satirised internet trolls who, in the name of free speech, ‘ members worldwide defines its role as promoting discussion: its stated aim is surrounding race a platform, a platform which has not previously existed’. As such, the types it of regulates speech that can take place in the group. Aside from obvious bans on hate speech, its regulations require members to inform themselves on basic concepts, such as systemic racism and white privilege, before joining the discussion. They also ask members not to talk over people Journal Music Group and ITT, or even clothing pages like Wavey Garms. Yet, from their beginnings, these the for speechers free rabid and commentators media invasive from attack under come have spaces regulations they impose on discussions and their willingness to remove members who don’t abide by their rules. 8,000 over now with and Deep Skin group University Oxford the as 2014 in launched Matters, Race The parodic rallying cry had lashed out against a campaign demanding Facebook better moderate content that is explicitly violent towards women. The 2013 campaign, spearheaded by activists and online feminist groups, Facebook then, Since stage. offline the onto communities online of emergences first the of one was communities have become increasingly visible in everyday life, be they race well-known discussion groups feminist like Race and Matters and Cuntry Living, influential music groups like the New FREEZE PEACH communities bringing a new meaning to Charlie Macnamara explores the online discursive free speech. 8 Brendan O’Neill’s 2014 piece in piece 2014 O’Neill’s Brendan the imminent demise of the universities and the collapse of Western culture and its historic freedoms. presaging as identified and quotes, scare in presented if written be only can phrase the dangerous so offence, potential any to sensitivity cultural generation-wide a of evidence to PTSD with dealing for technique recognized a from transformed are warnings trigger employ: critiques these crisis of a of something engage in proper, robust argument. The rush to critique these policies and communities has become Millennial of epitome the as groups these lambasted by won as characterised are Members papers. national major across by investigations undercover invasive of subject the as criticism public huge in backlash a such inspired has that community wider the into out groups internet these from regulations and values the of migration this is it Perhaps pressure toaddressthehugegenderdisparityamongDJsandperformers. mounting facing are board the across nights club and festivals while performers, and communities local around designed nights club space safe of series a launching currently is instance, for group, floors that are inclusive, fun, communal spaces to do and be what you want: the popular ITT music dance of culture a reinforcing mainstream, the into moving slowly is which scene, clubbing the in transformation radical a driving spaces, safe embraced widely have groups music Facebook world. This concept has spread beyond ostensibly political spaces and also spilled over into the non-virtual small queerandtransgenderonlinesupportgroupshavebecomedeeplyimportant. young transgender population have attempted suicide, and mental health provision is ceaselessly cut, our of 50% over where society a invaluable. In be safe spacecan internet an of dismissed concept often- the celebrated; be to also is spaces these of role supportive The problems. societal address often and for too long have gone unheeded, providing vital alternate perspectives and new ways to too that voices prioritise they it: facilitate communication for rules these debate, stifling from Far this assupportnetworks. like groups of function another underlines also but discussions, insightful and focussed practically promotes approach this issues; racial of experiences lived their to listen to instead but colour, of to reframe Greer as a victim, insidiously validating her hate-speech as rational argument. Legitimizing figure this uses O’Neill suffering. individual with concern its of because anti-intellectual as feminism intellectual rigorous forum. This figure a of the in overly-sensitive student is back familiar; it argue takes part in to a wider guts history smearing the have doesn’t and with agree hear don’t to they things bear cannot student hyper-sensitive hurt, the O’Neill, to According on people. views transgender hateful irrationally her to due Greer Germaine Feminist Radical the Platform-ing No for ‘ whoever shouts the loudest’. Paradoxically, a whole host of political publications have also have publications political of host whole a Paradoxically, loudest’. the shouts whoever ‘ moral panic’, a warranted term considering the inflationary logic and narratives and logic inflationary the considering term warranted a panic’, moral The Spectator criticised our generation of generation our criticised ‘ ‘ oversensitivity’ and a generational refusal to refusal generational a and oversensitivity’ defence’ of free speech. Groups have faced have Groups speech. free of defence’ ‘ aggressive’: debates are said to be to said are debates aggressive’: The Tab ‘ Stepford Students’ Stepford or splashed or SAVAGE

Greer, much like giving her a platform, pulls general debate back towards her viewpoint to the exclusion of other vital conversations. It’s not that these students couldn’t face debating Greer, it’s that they do not prioritise giving time and space to a speaker who has repeatedly expressed violent prejudice towards the transgender community. The popular reaction against Greer’s speaking coalesced into a wide coalition of feminist activists, and communities, largely organised online, who stood in solidarity with transgender allies, using their communal power through clear formal processes. Ironically, the expansive genre of articles vilifying generation ‘special snowflake’ have mostly been written by figures already in possession of their own very influential platforms, claiming that they are being silenced.

These online communities have created platforms for discussion and organisation that have never existed before. The cliché goes that the internet has changed our world for the better, uniting distant peoples and defying the powers of government censorship; much more mundanely than this, it has created avenues for communication and participation in diverse communities locally and internationally. There is a vital communitarian movement developing online, fighting to maintain the rights to govern itself and for important values in our wider culture. These groups have become incredibly important spaces for discussion, education, support and political organisation. They represent an exciting and potent new mode for free speech, ordered by community-led values and new conventions of engagement, which translates powerfully into the offline world. 9

Artwork by Eleanor Johnson 10 ace ekt-il n xotn Wsen aus to values Western exporting President Duterte’sPhilippines. on Peskett-Hill Caycee MEETS WEST WHERE EAST This reputation would appear would reputation This East’. the of Trump Donald as such names dubbed and has policies brutal his for known Duterte become President career, political his During for theirdifferentreasons. albeit cried, alike opponents and his and supporters his both celebrated, people roared, crowds The nation. the addressed and rivals his to condolences his sent him, around people the thanked up, stood He Philippines. the was Duterte announced as the President of Rodrigo as intensely watched 2016, Filipinos June 30th the On ‘ h punisher’ the ‘ the 3,000 drug 3,000 drug dealers and users fish there’. With an estimated the all fatten and Bay, Manila dealers drug slain of bodies the dump the to election following immediately promised Duterte President policy, anti-drugs flagship his of part as warranted: be to ‘ into SAVAGE

killed since his ascension to power, he seems to have acted accordingly. In September this year, he likened himself to one of the most hated men in history: ‘Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them’. For us in the West, being drip-fed his every move feels like watching a dystopic film. And yet, something incomprehensible to us is simply a solution to a longstanding problem for many in his country. When 86% of Filipinos have trust in their president, perhaps we should step back and try to understand how something we see as inexcusable can have such popular support. He is certainly not the only world leader following through policies that contravene western standards of morality, and, like other leaders we would deem reprehensible, he has a strong majority. Vladimir Putin’s fervently anti-gay 11 policies in Russia, for instance, have historically been backed by a substantial percentage of the population as well as by the moral institutions of the country.

Growing up with a mother from the Philippines has given me the opportunity to look at Duterte’s popularity as an insider. My mother’s inappropriate humour, loud nature, and tendency to talk before she thinks, are all accepted as part of her Filipino culture. The day after the election, she sat for hours watching news channels and listening to President Duterte’s press conference. She vigorously defended him: in her mind it was clear, ‘he is doing what is needed for the country’; for my mother, his actions and comments have simply been ‘lost in translation’.

President Duterte calling Barack Obama ‘putang ina’ gave rise to a literal mistranslation when the ensuing media storm interpreted the statement as meaning ‘son of a whore’. According to my mother, ‘people were overthinking what he’s saying’. And maybe she was right: ‘son of a whore’ is a literal translation of this phrase, but cultural differences assign it other significances. For many Filipino people the phrase was taken as more of a meaningless jibe. Although some regard it as one of the worse phrases in the Tagalog language, it is a common expletive and—like the Americanised ‘son of a bitch’—the implicit misogyny is not registered as problematic.

Exploring the context behind this phrase reveals an even more intractable underlying cultural disconnect. Duterte was answering a question from a Western reporter, asking how he would explain

Journal 12 ocd o ok n privatised in work to forced incarceration as white people, have five times the chance people of black crisis—where drug still own its with and struggles Trump in voted has US The value. moral of all origin the as West enshrines the that of judgement sort the avoiding while to policies, way Duterte’s a condemn find must We to haveuniversalvalue. standard—that assumed is morality Obama’s Western solely a against judged are they that problematic is it actions, Duterte’s of think would never be asked. Whatever we justification a such were it the other way around, whom, of leader, foreign a to with the call to justify himself issue taken have to seems questions. throw just not be Do respectful. must You nobody. but nobody people, Filipino the except master any have not responded He Obama. President to killings mass the Putang ina ’ ‘ He . do I ntttoaie racism. institutionalised and consumerism rampant including exploitative industry, values, American of package an whole the of spread insidious of wary be should We been slavery. modern to compared have which prisons rm xrm poverty, homelessness, and high crime extreme from much-needed growth: as a country suffering country’s his facilitating simply is he Philippines, the in many For decontextualized and emotive. is West the to portrayed Duterte is which in way The peodto fr any for meaningful resistance. precondition a as policies Duarte’s accepting just by that inaction encourages a approach necessitate relativistic not does This standpoints. these different between dialogue open a to need we Instead, this approach is unproductive. West, the from this condemn to easy is it While change. need someone radical to enact rates, many Filipinos feel they ‘ ifrn’ I i, rather, is, It different’. 13 Artwork by Zura Ibrahim Wafir government crackdown. Freedom of speech appears a distant dream in the current landscape.’ I’m from the Maldives but I’ve lived abroad almost my whole life so a lot of my art is reflective I’m from the Maldives but I’ve lived abroad almost ‘ is fraught with issues. Extreme political instability has followed a constitutional crisis in 2012; last is fraught with issues. Extreme political instability year the opposition leader was jailed for supposed terrorism, which provoked an even more severe year the opposition leader was jailed for supposed terrorism, which provoked an even more severe of home and its physical landscape. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but our current political situation of home and its physical landscape. I don’t know Journal 16 SAVAGE

100 Korean Finger Print 15 17 Nayoung Jeong

Nayoung Jeong’s performances centre around In the performance, the artist sits inside her her experiences of cultural displacement as a structure surrounded by silicon casts of Korean Korean student living in London. A PHD student students’ fingers suspended on the framework at the Slade, she is exploring her thesis ‘CLAY by red string. The artist pulls down the finger BODIES AS A SPACE FOR HABITUATION: CAN casts to make visible fingerprints on the clay- BUILDING HABITUATION STRUCTURES RELIEVE surfaced floor of the structure. According to DISPLACEMENT?’ Jeong uses local English clay Jeong, this collaboration of Korean identities in her performative piece 100 Korean Finger with local English earth allows her to ‘fuse the Print as a symbolic material to ground themes desire for cultural integration with a sense of of adjustment and navigation in a new cultural the culturally familiar’. Jeong’s performative environment. Clay and wood are used to space allows for cultural expression as well as create her ‘habitual structure’ an architectural integration within unfamiliar territories. construction resembling that of an Um-jip, a traditional Korean pit-dwelling hut.

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FRIEZE’S LONDON Louise Camu looks at the ways in which Frieze is shaping the art market.

Every October, the elite of the art world Masters, a twenty-minute walk from the main descend on London. Billionaire collectors and tent, was introduced in 2012 with the aim international art dealers gather in Regent’s of creating a dialogue with its contemporary Park, to celebrate over countless glasses of counterpart, whereby visitors are invited to Moët the pretentious jumble that is Frieze reflect upon the way in which older and more Art Fair. Launched as a contemporary art canonical art plays into a modern contemporary magazine in 1991 by Amanda Sharpe and context. Matthew Slotover, Frieze has since grown into an international phenomenon that hosts annual During the five-day feeding frenzy that is fairs in both London and New York. Frieze ‘Frieze Week’, Regent’s Park becomes an

Art absurd exhibition of luxury. With entry priced at a steep £56, Frieze is an event catering to a specific clientele. Galleries themselves are charged £500 per square metre of exhibition space, and some will pay up to £60,000 for a larger space. As such, Frieze is complicit in an ongoing elitism within the art world that makes wealth a deciding factor for who and what is exhibited: galleries dictate content and how artists’ work will be exhibited based on how it will sell. This system has the potential to exclude artists who haven’t the requisite connections and cultural, or indeed physical, capital, to launch their careers and get enough hype to be taken up by a gallery, hugely affecting the type of work that artists make.

Art fairs like Frieze have become promoters of commercially viable, photogenic, ‘instagrammable’ art. A stand at Frieze cannot Artwork by Tom Parkhouse act as both marketplace and exhibition space without the work on display being influenced by commercial concerns. The main Frieze tent is as much an amusement park as a cultural event: I enjoyed buying sweets from performers in the gender neutral bathrooms, experiencing virtual reality in an offensively yellow booth and almost falling asleep in an acoustic foam bed. The problem with works like these, valued for their initial shock-factor rather than depth, is that they begin to blend into a monotonous cry for attention, punctuated by an occasional Brexit thinkpiece or a celebrity sighting. It is rare to find work that demands and rewards serious attention.

Despite their premise of promoting creativity, at Frieze freedom of artistic expression does not flow as freely as the champagne. SAVAGE

Selldorf Architects (the ‘culprits’ behind the almost a sub-genre itself, a sign of ‘good monochrome setting of Frieze Masters) made it taste’: the offensively yellow virtual reality mandatory for galleries to choose from a strict booth projected you into a grid space mapped palette of grey paints, with limited options of onto your immediate surroundings, where you either carpet or wood for flooring. The intended were thronged by flouncing, overweight figures effect was clearly a sophisticated and warm bustling past one another in clear parody of overtone, perhaps hoping to escape the main the entire fair itself and its visitors. Frieze fair’s clinical, airport-like atmosphere. Sadly, the result was a lack of personality Inevitably, in hand with globalization we have within the exhibition spaces. witnessed the expansion of an art market and a proliferation of arts fairs that have popularized However, not everyone draws within the lines. and generated demand for materialistic and For two consecutive years, the Helly Nahmad profit-orientated art. But, by turning London Gallery has presented experimental and visually into a cultural epicentre of this art world, Frieze outstanding booths. In 2014, Nahmad invited has also hugely benefited the city: auction art historian and curatorial guru Sir Norman houses and other established institutions set Rosenthal to recreate the interior of a fictional up sales and shows of outstanding quality, art collector’s late 1960s Parisian apartment. in part designed to join in the buzz that 19 Priceless works adorned its walls and visitors accompanies Frieze week—although this of were presented with an A3-sized text course is further proof of the colossal power describing the life of the fictional collector who Frieze exerts upon other cultural institutions. inhabited the space. The attention to detail Lest one forgets, Frieze Masters offers those was exceptional, and the works were offered attending a rare and valuable opportunity in a context that was both commercial and to see a vast quantity of visually stunning collectible, yet also intimate and personal. In and historically important artwork usually 2015, Nahmad again commissioned another locked up in private collections. It would be site-specific curated space: Robin Brown counterintuitive and perhaps reactionary to try recreated the interior of a mental asylum and stop the monolithic Frieze now; instead based on those that Jean Dubuffet (artist and Frieze could be turned to help smaller and less founder of the Art Brut movement) had visited well-funded artistic projects to harness the in search of inspiration. Both spaces broke with buzz and focus it brings to the art calendar the monochromatic stylistic obligations and the and extend its sphere of influence outside its results were amusing and refreshingly original. tent walls. Unfortunately, 2016 saw the Nahmad Gallery revert to monochrome.

This said, it is almost too easy to be critical of Frieze and the values it promotes. Being knowingly rude about Frieze has become

Art 20 emnl prnil ryes H remembers He greyness. perennial seemingly best avenue for escape for someone faced with sitting on the panel, champions painting as the significance. Julio, a painter and former prisoner The aphorism process. rehabilitative a is it pursuit, creative a than more is art chosen, was work whose artists the of most for and speakers, the For the imprisonedthroughartisticexpression. titled Human aptly the curated boy, young a as crimes petty for jailed Zephaniah, Benjamin poet year, This artists. ex-offender of exhibition submissions from these institutions, an curated by together puts charity the year, Every activities. artistic of range diverse a pursue to hospitals long-term and centres enabling people in prisons, immigration detention funds Trust Koestler The the rightstoexpressionandwhodoesn’t. has who about dialogue a becomes also art of In this context, the discussion about the virtue debate. the to perspective new a gives which they have all shared the label surprising. What is unexpected, however, is that seem it debating those of occupations the or matter, subject location, this neither London means, and what its value is. In the context of art what discussing are They journalist. a and director theatre a artist, an poet, a sat are Centre Southbank London’s in podium a On Rosanna EllulprioritisesthediscussionofartfromUKprisons. ART FROMTHEINSIDE , which aimed to restore humanity to humanity restore to aimed which , ‘ art is therapy’ takes on an urgent ‘ Arts by Offenders’, by Arts ‘ prisoner’, a label We Are All centres sever ties and limit expression through detention and Prisons ones. creative alone let anymore, rights human about worry to have don’t we sight of out are people these Once so criminals imprisoning itself, of version simplified grossly a advertises culture prison our that is therefore, exhibition, the from clear is What as artists. rights their and prisoners of perception public antidote to a mostly negative and misinformed needed well a as act display, on poetry and outlets. Insights such as his, along with the art artistic through forged are journeys emotional Julio, For paralysis. emotional and violence of fixtures all-too-permanent feeds which prisons, fa held the puncturing tightly of way a as painting group ahoal at. lhuh h rl o this of genre, oreven the legitimacy of the term, has role or the classical Although art’. of fashionable conventions the from not depths, own their from … culture artistic by brut, as defined Dubuffet Jean an establishedmethodinreducingrecidivism. is and prisoners for lifeline a be can art out, this), despite the fact that, as the panel points 2014 infamous Grayling’s (Chris hubs artistic and educational Cuts to the prison estate often target prisons’ architecture. even and practice ideology, their ‘ works produced by persons unscathed ‘ od ctzn ae’ harmed. aren’t citizens good’ ç d o msuiiy n men’s in masculinity of ade ‘ ok a’ s n xml of example an is ban’ book ‘ usdr r’ o art or Art’, Outsider ‘ bad’ 21 outsider ‘ Artwork by Nell Nicholas inside’ and proudly presented it in it presented proudly and inside’ ‘ Insider Art’, Zephaniah said he used ‘ outsider art’, or even trying to use it as an anti-prison tool to highlight injustices within its ‘ or oppressed group. How do prisoners gain momentum and recognition of their art whilst secluded from society? How do they show their artistic subjectivity when their autonomy is limited? perhaps most And importantly, how do they integrate their art into a society that they themselves are answers definitive offer to able be not might Trust Koestler The join? to impossible near finding still to these questions, but they are one of the few bodies willing to ask them. Art artists as artists, not just prisoners. In his curation of this colour and light as central themes and structures, illuminating the art as a riposte to assumptions of violence, disorder and darkness that restricts these artists on both sides of the A half-eaten prison pear drawn gate. on the back of a crisp packet is, for him, comparable to a Cezanne, and should be celebrated equally, regardless of the past or present titles of the artist. Inevitably, this forgotten marginalised, a from art of celebration any does as problems, transparent faces celebration the open. In doing so its audience are forced to contemplate the difficult question of who is allowed is who of question difficult the contemplate to forced are audience its so doing In open. the to create art: we all supposedly have a right to expression, but the ability to create is a privilege largely kept from prisoners. world the in place its advocating merely not are Trust Koestler The art, prisoner of espousal their In of system. Instead, the exhibition is an inventive, colourful and liberating acknowledgement of these art’, prisoners are so easily forgotten as a marginalised group that can participate in our art and cultural scene. It’s hard to think of an environment more scathing of remarkable, artistic so exhibition output Koestler or the distanced made What scene. art fashionable the of conventions the from then, was its subversion of the public’s and prison estate’s assumptions about art from the inside, London central a in displayed was art Prison art. their and voices imprisoned for space a providing by hidden a with associated art took Trust Koestler the hub; cultural been fervently debated in certain artistic circles, it is surprising that even in the bracket of bracket the in even that surprising is it circles, artistic certain in debated fervently been 22 h atc dmgd h pitn along was it painting Nonetheless spine. Venus’s the nude the damaged attack The incredibly self-awareinitsperceived sacrilege. was that crime a committed history, student art of a previously Richardson, message. frustration through the potency of its wordless political Richardson’s communicated perfectly painting slashed The possible. means any by suffrage of women’s for campaign acts to vandalism used characteristically who WSPU militant the of tenet central the was concept motto the suffragette illustrated perfectly Richardson object, expressive silently this destroying the In of normal. boundaries the push that emotions produces and cannot, words what satisfies art reactions; strong prompt to nonetheless capacity the have paintings silence, their Despite and proceeded to slash the canvas seven times. she calmly took a meat cleaver from her sleeve ‘ where room Vel the reached Richardson Mary When Gallery, statement. political a National making on intent the of steps the climbed woman young a 1914, March of 10th the On h Rkb Vns; 675) a hanging, was 1647-51) Venus’; Rokeby The à zquez’s The Toilet ofVenus Fleur ElkertononSlasherMaryandahistoryofincisivefeministcriticism. Venus’s Violent ‘ ed nt od’ This Words’. not Deeds (nicknamed Story demographic Richardson was aiming to shock: to aiming was Richardson demographic readership of the horrified papers was the very and as painting the to damage the described headlines newspaper Intriguingly, Richardson’s murder. committed had to she if as reacted destruction press The jail. in dubbed ‘ was Richardson Ripper, the Jack to her linked that nickname a In brutal. viciously eye modern seeing pictures of these fissures, the act looks the To history. painting’s the in marks new these erase to attempt an in trial on was Richardson whilst rapidly restored h lvd n scey hr wrs simply words where society a in lived she believed she that Pankhurst. suggests act Emilline Richardson’s as such women’, living condoned Government’s their who public a by at gaped be to would of model this allow not she explained the Richardson justifying vandalism, statement a In gratification. male of name the in expression of freedom female of suppression wider the body represented female sexualized static this on gaze Gallery National the to visitors male how noticed had she because specifically Venus targeted she lse Mr’ n snecd o i months six to sentenced and Mary’ Slasher ‘ re wud’ Te rdmnnl male predominantly The wounds’. cruel ‘ ae a i al a ln’ Te male The long’. day all it at gaped ‘ destruction’ of destruction’ ‘ the beautiful woman’ beautiful the ‘ agd bruises’ ragged ‘ beautiful

16 16 SAVAGE

were not working; instead, physical action was WHY.’ The debate about silence in the art needed. Richardson’s statement continued, world is still raging, branching out from female ‘justice is an element of beauty as much as representation to matters of class and race. colour and outline on canvas’. Barbara Kruger conveys an incommunicable anger at the ongoing suppression of female The Rokeby Venus shows a female nude with voices. Her collages include phrases such as: her back to the viewer, a classically erotic ‘Who does she think she is? It’s time for pose, and her face in the mirror is deliberately women to stop being politely angry’ boldly unclear. We are left to observe her naked emblazoned upon them. All these women body, whilst she completes her ‘toilet’. She manipulate the vocal power of art as a form of is being objectified just as she is preparing to resonant expression. be an object of gazes admiring her beauty. Richardson’s background in art history shows The V&A’s recent exhibition Botticelli she clearly understood the art historical Reimagined, an exploration of the kitsch significance of Venus. The goddess of love and commercial modern afterlife of Botticelli’s 25 is the archetypal sexualised female figure, nudes, reconfirms that the female nude is rarely embodying the erotic object of the dominating able to escape objectification or idealization. male gaze. Venus is eternally portrayed as However, it also indicates the ways in which an unachievable nude, without body hair; modern artists are approaching such archetypal even today ‘Venus’ is a leading female razor emblems as Venus from different angles, and company. in the process rewriting our approach to art history. Being self-aware about the way we view Richardson’s action was perhaps the ultimate symbols and histories of femininity is not only expression of art criticism, marking the art relevant to the rarified world of art galleries: object with her visceral reading. Many decades perceptions, depictions and objectification are later the Guerilla Girl movement sought to daily realities for women. Out of art’s silence reshape our perception of the artistic cannon can come a powerful and responsive form of and museum spaces, highlighting the ever- communication. present male gaze and gender inequality in the contemporary art world. They showed that The Rokeby Venus is permanently on display of 169 female nudes on display at MoMA in in Room 30 of the National Gallery. New York, only three were by female artists. In their latest London exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, the door reads: ‘THE GUERRILLA GIRLS ASKED 383 MUSEUMS ABOUT DIVERSITY. ONLY 1/4 RESPONDED. COME INSIDE AND SEE Artwork by Flora Thomas Art 1626 infinitely intriguingandimpactfulmedium. Red violence. into descent critics’ the foreshadowing faces, their cover colour the of Flashes blood. or references to works like Munch’s blend together seamlessly’, visuals the and dialogue the make to knowledge filmmaking his of all using comical, and interesting bounds the of within comedy. Inspired surprising by Edgar and Wright, surreal who something make to opportunity an red—provided colour the of film recent Rebour’s way toapproachasubjectwithdepth. their own voice into the project. Well suited to new and unique premises, it can provide an intriguing While comedy’s subjectivity may make it difficult to get right, it also allows the filmmaker to inject seriously’. them take to people for order in serious something make to want filmmakers student initially cy to take a concept first and then build the genre around it. Like most emerging filmmakers, Rebour 70mm horror/thiller on worked has he UCL At Thomas Rebourspeaksabouthisshortfilm Taking Comedy Seriously technical challengeofrecreatingfruitninja’sgraphicsinreallife. production was about first His films. short into moved slowly and effects visual into looking started he videomaker, prank French a Gaillard, Remi by inspired Originally 12. was he when films making started Rebour Thomas presents comedy’s surreal aspect and makes a case for student filmmakers not to neglect this and comedy web series ‘ thought I’d make sci-fi or action films’, seeing comedy as a less prestigious genre: Red ‘ a guy who gets stuck in fruit ninja in an iPhone’, giving himself the significant —about two art critics having a heated discussion over different shades different over discussion heated a having critics art two —about Red Couchtime Stories Couchtime ’s comedy is a m The Scream Paranoia an ambiguity about whether they are discussing paint é Red ‘ lange of different sources: parodies of art criticism, . This generic eclecticism derives from his tenden manages to make even the most mundane actions , a drama about a filmmaker going blind called blind going filmmaker a about drama a , . ‘ I guess - Still from Reds 28 thing arehappening atonce? same the of versions several when in, live we society the reflect television and film our can how filmmakers: for challenge a creates This ‘ is what with relationship our transformed has technology way the around anxieties These often alreadyagree. we whom with friends, by shared articles see we chamber echo media social the In country. focused, marketing more to a viewpoint than a broadcasting forums are becoming more globally National private. and public between lines the blur that sphere virtual a in personas public creating way, new a in media this with engage We anything. of sure less feel but paradoxically before, ever than media consuming of ways more have We complex. more and more become has reality everyday of understanding our information, to access our speed of scope and the transformed has technology As source. the trust on we much how depends and context, Whether true as not. something accept is we them our but of objective, understanding supposedly are Facts el ae nraigy en epoe i film. in explored being increasingly are real’ L eah Aaronaskshowfilmcandealwiththecomplexitiesofmodernworld. Filming Hyper Reality between ideologically polarized, geographically polarized, ideologically between split neat This lines. capitalist/socialist along East and West Germany, his personality is split like so Stamm); (Martin ego alter an has spy, a being Rauch, alluring. remains ideology his is of clarity the Rauch choices, horrific make to forced Although West. the in de-camp aide- military a as undercover go to forced is who guard, border German East Martin an Rauch, follows that series year, spy West this meets earlier 4 Deutschland ’83 Channel on Airing what youthinkshouldbehappening. going on in front of you no what’s longer lines up with when dissonance cognitive severe in that such a singular cultural narrative can result point. moot a was media the or government the either in trust population, the of much for truth; the of versions embellished blatantly contained entertainment era Soviet duality. stark such of nostalgic. escapism, which at its best reveals the poverty is Deutschland ’83 hemispheres disconnected Deutschland ’83 s Gra-ae East German-made a is s oplig stylish compelling, is demonstrates SAVAGE

Adam Curtis also knows the visual value of with the state of surveillance that the internet Cold War nostalgia, but rather than exploring can create, suggestively tipping his hat to the it through fiction, he does it through ‘reality’. ‘close aim’ sci-fi coming out of the USSR in the He wants to reveal ‘the truth about our post- ’30s that was constricted by heavy censorship truth world’, and he does this by showing to dramatizing a recognizable ‘tomorrow’. It’s us archive footage of news and television, a reality where our relationship with what’s spliced together into a 160-minute long happening in front of us no longer matters, it’s collage of a documentary. The film’s title, about the narrative we are creating, and that Hypernormalisation refers to a Perestroika- others create for us. era Soviet writer’s description of the head-in- the-sand mentality endemic to the last days The hyper-connectedness of our newly of the USSR–a time when ‘You were so much globalized world is real, and the problems a part of the system that it was impossible it poses need exploring. In trying to reflect to see beyond it’. Deutschland ’83 allows us this information overload, Curtis’ pretensions to make our own comparisons to life behind to narrative coherence reveal the faults of the Iron Curtain, but Curtis makes these his own argument. We tend to think of our

connections explicit, exposing links between the ‘post-factual’ age only in negative terms, 29 late Soviet Union and our ‘post-truth’ world. He forgetting that such fractured streams of is obsessed with systems and their collapse, narrative facilitate public and widespread depicting almost every civil war of the past 40 debates around class, gender and race in a years—and implying that the factors behind way that was previously the preserve of them are almost all the same. In connecting academics. Simplistically failing to acknowledge these disparate realities, Hypernormalisation such positives, Hypernormalisation dismisses suggests that the world is actually much our preoccupation with identity politics as simpler than it first appears. a symptom of the fractures in the system, perhaps missing the full power of this new Black Mirror dramatizes our obsessive, age. What Black Mirror & Deutschland ’83 addictive relationship with the virtual universe. understand, however, is that before we can It explores, like Curtis, the power of the repair anything, we need to find out what network and what happens when the lines identity in this new reality is. As our trust in between the online and ‘real’ worlds start to the authority of the news erodes, and truth blur, but in a way that is much less explicit. becomes ever more confusing, sometimes the Rather than attempting to explain, the best way to do this is by escaping to fictional anthology of episodes use fictional settings to worlds. explore the space between our real and virtual selves. Writer Charlie Brooker is preoccupied

Film 30 the point-of-viewofhislover’svagina. by outraged was one no that surprising hardly it’s and pornography internet of proliferation the with this Combine shows. television American recent at look just mainstream; the into seeped has cinema arthouse in Songs (1999). Away from France there was Lars von Trier’s Trinh Thi’s French films that came out at the turn of the century, films such as Virginie Despentes and Coralie ‘ debut wonderful Dumont’s Bruno in fifteen of age the at came screen on sex organic real, watching of experience first My in contemporarycinemawillhaveseennon-simulatedsexonthebigscreen atsomepointbynow. interested anyone as surprising, hugely not was This it. by upset particularly be to seemed one no itself: film the as significant as almost found I that reception critical film’s the of aspect one was that the film was decent yet paled in comparison to his prior work, in 3D, would pay good money to see the maverick Frenchman’s latest offering. Most people agreed Gaspar No of release the for hype the up dialled cinemas arthouse London how year last remember may You Marek Majuncovers'realsex'incinema. SEX ONSCREEN New French Extremity’, a term coined in an effort to smear a spate of (often sexually) transgressive (2004), and é ’s latest film Baise-moi Love Shortbus (2000), Patrice Ch , a film that shows, lest we forget, the protagonist’s ejaculating penis from penis ejaculating protagonist’s the forget, we lest shows, that film a , Love La Vie deJésus . The hope was that audiences, enticed by the promise of real-life sex (2006) by John Cameron Mitchell. Needless to say, this development é reau’s (1997). Dumont and No and Dumont (1997). Intimacy The Idiots (2001), and Catherine Breillat’s Romance (1998), Michael Winterbottom’s Enter the VoidEnter the é were both in fact part of the of part fact in both were (2009). But there 9 SAVAGE 31 Try to think of some genuinely unforgettable erotic images in recent cinematic history. There are some, of course: the food-throwing in Young Adam (2002), the hilarious threesome in Y Tu Mamá También (2001), and the final interview in Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989). The general trend, though, perhaps in reaction to audiences becoming more and more desensitised, has been to depict sex in terms of alienation, ennui and moral vacancy. Why has this approach come about in a society supposedly more sexually liberated than ever?

Simply put, despite relaxations in censorship over the last two decades, controversial, erotic mas- terpieces of the Pasolini, Buñuel or Borowczyk ilk have been conspicuously rare. If you look back to those decades following the War there are dozens of famous moments of erotic chutzpah. From British cinema alone, I could point to the naked wrestling by the fire in Ken Russell’s version of Women in Love (1969), or the tavern meal in Tony Richardson’s version of Tom Jones (1963), where the characters’ carnal appetites are barely concealed by their voracious eating. In Jiří Menzel’s Czech ‘New Wave’ film Closely Observed Trains (1966), a station clerk cheerfully rubberstamps his lover’s thighs and bottom. Similarly, in the Japanese thriller Woman in the Dunes (1964), the two lovers tentatively begin exploring each other’s bodies by slowly scraping the sand off each other. The most enchanting of all may be in Jean Genet’s Un chant d’amour (1950), where billowing cigarette smoke is lovingly passed from one prisoner to another through a chink in the wall. These works chart the hedonistic release many countries experienced in the post-war years and speak to

Film 32 most powerfulerotictoolofall. the remains seems, it Imagination, event. past the of bliss the counterpoints told being is story the which in tone wistful the women, two the between intimacy growing the see we and ourselves for story the imagine to free we’re music: of piece great a as harmonious and complex as is that way a in other each with intermingle poignantly emotions and desires Here, viewer. the for illation tit mere than profound more far something becomes thus Andersson by delivered monologue The the summer holidays. Many filmmakers would cut to a flashback at this point, but Bergman doesn’t. Andersson, recalls the time she and her friend had spontaneous group sex on a sunny beach during Bibi by played nurse, her while on listens actress mute Ullmann’s Liv cinema. of all in eroticism of even touch other and yet for me it serves as one of the most astonishing, highly-charged moments work 1966 Bergman’s Ingmar from scene a with it No about talking by started I it interestingwheneveryone’sseenallalready? post-war material has led to a problem that pervades much of modern filmmaking: how do you make our desires in a way that is memorably surreal, vivid,and inorganic. The abundance of experimental é ’s rather unsubtle provocation, so I think I should end by contrasting by end should I think I so provocation, unsubtle rather ’s Persona . In this scene the two leads do not do leads two the scene this In . - SAVAGE Artwork byRichard Magee

17 34 ue Vres c-i oes bu taeln to travelling about novels sci-fi Verne’s Jules the improbable, to his most famous works satirising of elements with public the awed which ( Lady shows illusionist his From experiences. and sensations of range whole a portray to managed that art of works visionary M many others. influence by crucial Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrik a and as referenced been has imagination and invention of mastery whose century, 20th with undeniable M approach turned that unexpected excitement an and new this space. and time of manipulation as well as people, and objects of transformations and disappearances included was the first to introduce special effects, which He thereafter. them perceived people way the setting the tone for how films were created and move from still photographs to moving pictures, M Georges Diandra SILENT FILM–AVOCALLEGACY tools of sound fundamental and language is the quite astounding. without public the to to speak managed 1890s, the of world developing of reality. forms secondary by, influenced were and perceived, people how in film role crucial a silent played the opportunity, in unlimited and the world forever: the era of film. change to nineteenth was that period the a followed century of end the towards surging Riding on the wave of technological advancement é li è s’ viewership was astounded by obscure and and Ş u hw hs fls i te rapidly the in films, these how But ov é ‘ li ahr f ieaorpy o the of cinematography’ of father The FourTroublesome Heads è ă ws n o te ey is to first very the of one was s ilescu explores the history and influence of silent films.

i adecs welcomed audiences His The Vanishing é li Novel, unique, è it the into s ), SAVAGE

the unexplored (notably A Trip to the Moon), found in romantic literature, and exposed them Méliès opened up completely new and fantastic in novel and imaginative ways. worlds. He spoke to his audiences in a unique way about the power of dreams, and the However, as film technologies advanced further, depths of our own consciousness. He was the the popularity of silent movies waned to be first to explore the uncharted field of erotic replaced by the new ‘talkies’–audial films that cinematography, his After the Ball (1897) was were soon to replace the silent era forever. the very first film to contain nudity. For many, They offered narratives propelled forwards by he carried an almost superhuman ability to dialogue, silent symbolism and mystery seemed unravel the entire spectrum of the human mind to become increasingly obsolete, and the and its complexities. The endless opportunities requirement for audiences themselves to make offered by new discoveries in film production up the script to a whole conversation seemed and editing unleashed the seemingly unlimited unnecessarily arduous. nature of his creativity. When the French silent film, The Artist came Over time, audiences grew wider, and the film out in 2011, it reimagined what has been a industry started to branch out from its earlier largely ignored era of film. Its subject tackled purpose as a pastime for the working classes. the transition from the silent period to the The middle class was coming to dictate popular sound era, the very shift that killed off cultural development after over a century of the film’s own genre. Beyond this, though, the 35 increasing political ascendancy, and they were film raised important questions challenging our demanding films that portrayed the intrigues of modern understanding of films, as well as the high society. Films had to be tailored to the importance of perception and imagination in necessities of the new public, and this led to the full experience of a movie: is speech truly an influx of bourgeois novel adaptations. Now necessary in a film? Can dialogue sometimes be comedy, drama and romance filled theatres, redundant and often mediocre? recreating situations audiences would recognise from real-life. Bored with the fantastical We are now used to watching films that use and the unknown, the preposterous and the dialogue as the primary form of expression. Yet excessive, viewers sought to look deeper into the inherent magic of silent films presents an aspects of the perceptible world. incredible potential for modern times, where silence becomes an artistic choice rather than The silent feature of film was of essence a necessity. The opportunity to combine the here too. The speechlessness of the stories enigmatic symbolism that lies at the core of of chivalry, courtship and bravery always silent film era with the technical and thematic left open so many avenues of interpretation, advancements of modern cinematography which obliged audiences to come up with their would be creatively explosive. Perhaps The own emotional responses. This led to a very Artist demonstrates that the modern film successful era of romantic films: from 1921’s viewer is ready for a more active role, primed The Sheik to Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 rom- for the compelling and personal imaginative com City Lights, a generation of silent films input that silent films demand. brought back to life the themes and characters

Film 1636 Vegetable Inappropriate Shock ofnailsscratchthe ourselves. No spacetobe on theseshelves. is tobeweak to beunique my yellowdots. I likemyredface deserving cot. now stuffedinsideyour will makeyourot the spotsthatmadeyouspecial your ownseedblessedyouwith Finger thepatches in yoursorrystate. You You, incryingcrate. among thebeauties. Fingers willfindyou No. I willdiewithyou I grewwithyou caress youfromallsides. tear ductheadsandcurvedlines smooth spheres,perfectpeardroplets, Raw handstoss,roughandunfeeling; are unfitforpurchase. You

SAVAGE

leathery skin, the pits where there are zits; roots where there should have been shoots and freckles, where there should have been speckles.

The Untouched are petal pink flesh portrait ready poised leaf. They will go far they will glow in the bowl, stand behind curtain still life models. They are souls sold before they are devoured.

You find new boxes 37 17 new friends nobbled brows swollen skulls the bruised lose. Among the throng of the born wrong.

A sticker to a forehead bent in shame.

I am the same. Under unruly limbs and odd-ball genital things believe me, believe me.

Unfit for purchase

reduced to clear.

Nikita Singh

ShowcaseLiterature 16 SAVAGE 39

Artwork by Georgia Herman and Luke Farley 17

Explaining the process of a Foley Artist. Describing the sounds though image and text. Using still lives to bring sound into the realm of the visible.

Fo•ley (ˈfoʊ li) n. 1. A technical process by which sounds are created or altered for use in a film, video, or other electronically produced work 2. A person who creates or alters sounds using this process.

Artwork by Fleur Elkerton

ShowcaseLiterature 40 lcin a, oig o oiae individuals motivate to hoping Day, Election and October of 10th the between day, per song one released that website independent to upsized project: wider much a of part fact in was piece clipping.’s 2016 election. the of state deplorable the with associated oddly too track the made to fraud, and evasion tax of history Trump’s on from campaign, the neatly in events significant to reference Though making election. presidential 2016 the surrounding debates the from detached curiously and in involved intimately once at was track The button’. the with trusted be to talk twitter much Too / nothing for earned by-piece: piece- Trump exposes puns, sharp and rhymes clever with littered track, The States. the United of President-elect now is who man the against tirade out-dated already yet crafty a release, latest clipping.’s is This cowbells. and snares warped of background a with the President’ coos MC Daveed Diggs over ‘ Ryan McMeekinlistenstothepoliticalmusicthatputTrumpinWhiteHouse. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION THE SOUNDTRACKTO oad Donl. o’l ee hv dinner have never You’ll Dooonald. Donald, ‘ grabbing vaginas’, clipping.’s lyricism also lyricism clipping.’s vaginas’, grabbing ‘ Fat fingers fumble with silver spoons ‘ 0 as 5 Sns—a an Songs’—was 50 Days, 30 ‘ ‘ 0 as 3 Songs’—now 30 Days, 30 ah a fe’ a comment a free’, tax cash ‘ otc t be to poetic’ ‘ Fat Fingers’, Fat ea’ JEMFA tr i a ie ta sees that video a in stars JPEGMAFIA legal’, it’s cause just Trump Donald for vote might as Trump’s such lyrics of Featuring supporters. critique frightening comically a as worked example, for Trump’, Donald 4 contribution, JPEGMAFIA’s unbelievable risetopower. many, for and, meteoric his prevent to failed diversity of anti-Trump feeling that nonetheless to the serious and fearful—a testament to the with pieces ranging from saw the ironic artists, and amusing of project variety huge a The from contributions Trump. against vote to n a hobn dsponmn a the at disappointment commercialisation of the presidential campaign. throbbing a and disillusionment of sense genuine a contained gilded room of gold, marble and soft perfume’, From / night at city his on down looking he’s in politics. Lyrics such as a far mellower discussion of the role of money for contribution, Cab Cutie’s Death Meanwhile, Bernie”’. “Fuck including whilst lines shouting Maryland, Air, Bel of neighbourhood drive around the largely white and middle-class himself and Freaky (a collaborator on the track) ‘ Million Dollar Loan’, was Loan’, Dollar Million ‘ ‘ t n-at yelling, Uni-Mart At From a great height ‘ Mgt Vote Might I ‘ just I SAVAGE

Music has been influential in presidential messages. One of the most popular songs of elections since the eighteenth-century; George the campaign was YG and Nipsey Hussle’s ‘FDT Washington’s various political successes and (Fuck Donald Trump)’, which, though engaged presidential campaigns saw the penning of with issues of race and police brutality, is songs such as ‘Follow Washington’ (1776) overlaid with a chorus of ‘Fuck Donald Trump / and ‘God Save Great Washington’ (1786). The Fuck Donald Trump / Yeah, nigga, fuck Donald latter was particularly politically-charged as it Trump’, perhaps detracting from the otherwise was set to the tune of ‘God Save the King’, a sharp and intelligent treatment of politics on jibe at the British Empire from whom America the track. The music seems indicative of a had recently gained its independence. Likewise, wider disenfranchisement and disenchantment in the twentieth-century, Frank Sinatra agreed with politics, part of what has led to Trump’s to rewrite his 1959 single ‘High Hopes’ for success. Whereas popular artists in the past, John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign, replacing Gil Scott-Heron for instance, were seriously his lyrics with lines such as ‘Jack’s the nation’s and committedly engaged in issues of social favourite guy, / Everyone wants to back Jack’. change, it seems that current middle-ground musicians are only able to express themselves These antiquated campaigns highlight the through satire and apathetic ridicule. particular characteristics of music in the 2016 41 election. Whereas earlier songs were used ‘30 Days, 30 Songs’ claimed to be a project to promote a particular candidate, the most campaigning against Trump’s ‘rhetorical popular pre-election tracks of 2016 were used contortions’ and his incitement of hatred, yet largely for negative campaigns: though pro- the lyrics on songs such as clipping.’s ‘Fat Trump songs were produced and circulated in Fingers’ demonstrate a hatred of their own certain communities, very few, if any, gained the that is difficult to process, as a quality that same sensational popularity as those produced the project supposedly eschews—saying, for to slight the Republican candidate. Pro-Clinton example, ‘who the fuck let this man talk?’. The songs on the other hand were practically non- understandable anger of artists like clipping. existent. This seems symptomatic of the way seemingly failed to translate into a wider in which Trump’s campaign successfully traded movement that could move beyond anger into on fear and hatred, and Clinton’s utterly failed the sort of powerful, considered response that to provide a positive alternative. can change society. Now America is facing a Trump presidency for at least the next four Music was predominantly used in this election years, it is more important than ever that as part of the wider political mudslinging that political music does more than just propagate characterised the race. Most anti-Trump songs anger. seemed mainly concerned with provoking a reaction, or providing comic value; parody was often favoured over concrete political

Music 42 popularity, as well as a platform on which to which on platform a as well vast as popularity, her earn eventually would jazz playing of compromise initial the preferences, artistic her of surrender forced a as move this saw Simone Though bills. the pay to bars in blues aspiring classical pianist became the jazz singer, singing the Simone; Nina Kathleen became Eunice Waymon vocalist. a as herself never seen had Simone compromise, a was itself in This play. as well as sing she that insisted owner the where City, Atlantic in Grill & Bar Midtown the at performing involved jobs these of One lessons. piano her continuing fund to a worked Simone number of odd jobs around Philadelphia in order desired. she as perform and play to ability her curtailed rejection This colour. skin her to due was maintained always even–but it was denied, a decision that Simone inevitable expected, was Philadelphia in Music of age the of Institute Curtis the at place Simone’s three. from playing up pianist, grown classical having a become to planned she by creative Carolina, North Tryon, her in up Growing freedom. characterised of sacrifices and was compromise career Simone’s highly destructiveinherpersonallife. often was it performances, stage intoxicating in resulted passion unbridled Simone’s Where daughter. her with relationship dissolved a and marriage, dissolved a friendships, dissolved in resulted volatility this she though disposition, fiery her as by aided freely was as stagecraft her lived performed: who figure She a musician. was jazz female finest America’s the as known woman the Simone, Nina irrepressible the by immortalised been have words These ‘ I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.’ no me: to is freedom what you tell I’ll ‘ ih rets o su’ ad arguably and soul’, of priestess high IRREPRESSIBLE NINA SIMONE development ofNinaSimone’s Sophie Nevrklachartsthe powerful self-expression. THE SAVAGE

protest issues that she cared deeply about. off the stage. Simone became infamous for Simone knew that in order to be artistically her frequent outbursts: she fired a gun at free and follow through her ideals, she needed a record executive whom she believed was to be successful and practical first. stealing royalties; she injured a neighbour’s son with an air gun after his playing disturbed her However, for Simone artistic integrity and concentration; close friend Janis Ian remembers politics were inseparable: ‘you can’t help it. Simone once holding a sales assistant at An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to gunpoint. Simone struggled with alcohol and reflect the times,’ she avowed in one interview. drug abuse and suffered from intense mood In 1964 she wrote and released ‘Mississippi swings, made worse by the presence of a Goddam’, a song as controversial for its psychologically and physically abusive husband. denouncements of racial inequality as it was for But as well as violent clashes between husband the expletive in the title, both of which were and wife, her daughter recalls frequent beatings quickly and firmly censored. This song was and moments of horrific mental abuse at the Simone’s response to the murder of Medgar hands of Simone. On and off stage, Simone Evers and the bombing of a Baptist Church was unable to repress what she was feeling: in Alabama, which killed several young black her daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly describes this as an inability to ‘stop being Nina’. women. From this point on, she became part 43 of the movement: she was close to Malcom X and other Black Nationalist figures, denouncing Simone perhaps became a victim of her own Martin Luther King’s peaceful approach in favour visceral need for self-expression. She once said of violent revolution. Simone used her platform ‘I had spent many years pursuing excellence, to write several songs in this vein, songs such because that is what classical music is about… as ‘Four Women’ and ‘To Be Young, Gifted Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that and Black’. At the same time, Simone upheld was much more important’. Simone applied her characteristic romantic themes: the classic the same drive, determination and focus that 1964 album I Put A Spell On You was released she applied to her practicing to her politics the same year as ‘Mississippi Goddam’. And and general outlook. Musically, this resulted the passion she brought to her love songs, she in magic, and songs which were not just brought to her protest songs too, intertwining important as music, but vital to the Civil Rights the political and the personal. She had finally Movement. But Simone was left seeing enemies found her calling, acting on what she saw as a in everyone and everything, including her own duty to speak on behalf of the disenfranchised child. Her volatile urges to express exactly African-American population. what she felt when she felt it, could not free Simone from herself, instead ending in a painful However what was in the realm of music an self-destructiveness. exhilerating, hypnotic lack of restraint, lyrically and musically, garnered her a nasty reputation Artwork by Ned Botwood Music 44 eschews prejudice. Afropunk consequently encourages society as a whole to promote acceptance in removed from everyday reality, where they can dress the way they wish and find a community that concluding: and ABLEISM’ NO / RACISM NO / with beginning day, present the for commandments of set a declaring banners white blank space to freak out in, to construct a new reality’. Its main stage is framed by huge black-and- as itself describes It freedom. of sense similar a on predicated is Festival Afropunk the dancingandsingingthatfollowsbecomesinfinitelymoreinfectious. comfortable, feel can individual any which in acceptance of environment an establishing By beyond. personality is a shared experience. A chance to become the person you want to be, and for ethos the her night with offers and Christine performance—what breath-taking expect—a may audience the what Beyond today. music defines that zeitgeist all-inclusive fluid, gender a encapsulates Christine songs, written beautifully and routines choreographed Through stage. on character unique new, a by awe-struck enthusiasm, sheer artist’s French the for admiration shared a by together brought always but ethnicity, and gender age, in diverse are fans Her audiences. her greeting when zone!’ H vocals, of commingling the with choreography andtheaudience’senergycommunicatingthispersonalityreinforcingit. inextricable, are art their and artist the performance, live a In and movement of restrictions reason why the involve songs is can capture It an can expression. artist’s personality, of or a forms it powerful two political message, these in just combines voice: minutes. Music language. the body through communication to apply only not does Censorship é lo ï se Letissier, better known as Christine and the Queens, often proclaims that Nick MastrinicelebratestheinclusivecommunitysurroundingFrenchpopstar Christine Queen Christine andtheQueens. ‘ NO HATEFULNESS’. Festivalgoers are offered a place a offered are Festivalgoers HATEFULNESS’. NO ‘ Tonight is a free ‘ safe place, a place, safe ‘ NO SEXISM NO SAVAGE

the same way. As in the case of Christine, a sense of communal values—and an ethical awareness that is wider than just the music—is integral to the connection forged with the audience.

With both Christine and Afropunk, limiting factors such as genre, gender and nationality have been put aside, allowing artists to more accurately represent the variety of influences that formed, and continue to form, their identity. Popularity can come from a transparent, self-depreciating public image, as Christine’s twitter account attests, as well as Kanye West style showmanship. The digital world promotes a process of cross-cultural fusion and curation. Today, artists are not just looked up to, but share a dialogue with their fans which allows for a two-way exchange.

Christine’s ability to create such an atmosphere of freedom is all the more remarkable as a French artist in the UK. Rather than being hindered by the language barrier, her success in English-speaking countries has blossomed because of the way in which she blends native and foreign cultures. Just as her songs explore the androgynous, their language is fluid, flitting back-and-forth between French and English. The difference between the familiar and the alien becomes blurred as she selects her lyrics from two separate vocabularies. In ‘Tilted’, a bridge of French rap transitions into a verse in English, she sings, ‘I’m doing my face with magic marker’. Even in English, Christine’s language is

playfully oblique, demanding individual, personal interpretation. 45

When Christine and the Queens performs, she embraces imperfection and transforms mistakes into successes: her choreography often features stumbling and rebalancing, turning failure into elegance— the audience is inspired to do the same. In ‘Half Ladies’, she captures this self- empowerment: ‘Every insult I hear back / Darkens into a beauty mark’. This is part of the dancefloor transition from strict predisposed ‘real-world’ notions of identity into something new, enigmatic and hopeful. In ‘Science Fiction’ she roams the dance floor proclaiming ‘In this sea of eyes / Every move’s a coup’. Even guilt at her own inaction reinforces her positive message for the future: ‘Saint Claude’ tells the story of her failure to intervene when she witnessed an extravagant young boy being bullied at a train station.

Christine is conscious of society’s response to ‘anomalous’ individuals, of insults thrown by those who seek to elevate themselves above others. Her increasing popularity, along with other LGBT+ artists such as Frank Ocean and Anohni, signals a growing public conscience regarding these instances of prejudice. Though her music is not overtly political, it speaks of ethical issues that we must face in daily life–the social politics of ‘long-time mockery’: as she sings in ‘Ugly-Pretty’. Freedom in society allows for any individual to express themselves, even if their message is of hate. But Christine reminds us that it also gives us the chance to eschew cynicism, and to be empathetic in every exchange whether that is a passing encounter or a Brixton concert.

Music 16 Artwork byAliceAedy SAVAGE

Something about cobbling things together Slashing verbs, slumming vowels, it’s obscene But it makes them think we’re clever

Ruins the fresh, bouncing rhythms of the tongue Deadens flesh, acidic freeze Far from evolution

Like throwing fruit away Into an icy grave

Nothing about Freeze Peach gives me appetite Hard and Frosty It’s like a pantomime fakeness So preserved and precise, concise Something it’s easy to repeat every night 47

Nothing about Freeze Peach gives me appetite 17 Let it thaw in your hands Freeze until it feels burning Then it’s good, know it’s working Numbing every bit of sense Freeze Peach Try as a might, my calmness gets the best of me I slip too easily Much too imitatively

Lyrics by Rosemary Moss. Jamming well, while rotting in a plotting of poor vines Idly wishing we Through the extended metaphor of Were subject to a spot of pruning ‘Freeze Peach’ words become merely functional, stale and monotonous as Like throwing fruit away the song progresses. The conceit Into an icy grave of its title presents words as ‘Hard and Frosty’; a difficult vehicle for the Nothing about Freeze Peach gives me appetite expression of an individual voice. Hard and Frosty

ShowcaseLiterature 16 as harvestparted Never started heavy hearted but it came to me lacking energy purpose lacking steady flowing frenzy Feeling That it’senoughtobeallfumbledinamush But welltherestofuscanpresume (We few,wehappyfew) If you’relucky,consumed and clutched hand, bruised. to hand from Passed It’s notenoughtobeplucked, hung on Filling up on the edge of the branch that you’re When you’rehomegrown,spunalong Numbing everybitofsense Then it’sgood,knowworking Freeze untilitfeelsburning Let itthawinyourhands Nothing aboutFreezePeachgivesmeappetite Something it’seasytorepeateverynight So preservedandprecise,concise It’s likeapantomimefakeness Trying tomakeabitofsense Then it’sgood,knowworking Freeze untilitfeelsburning Let itthawinyourhands Nothing aboutFreezePeachgivesme appetite Something it’seasytorepeateverynight So preservedandprecise,concise It’s likeapantomimefakeness Hard andFrosty Nothing aboutFreezePeachgivesmeappetite My glowingfleshwascruellysmarted SAVAGE DYLAN AND THE BARDS Beatrice Bacci revisits the shared history of lyric and song.

COME YOU LADIES AND YOU GENTLEMEN, A-LISTEN TO MY SONG, SING IT TO YOU RIGHT, BUT YOU MIGHT THINK IT’S WRONG. HARD TIME IN NEW YORK TOWN –BOB DYLAN

Search for the ancestors of poetry and you will stasimon where choruses sang and danced. arrive at the figure of Orpheus–a man whose When the foundations of Greek democracy singing could move rocks and tame beasts. were laid by a poet named Solon, writing had Orpheus was the son of Calliope, the ‘beautiful- yet to be extricated from music as a medium voiced’ muse of poetry. He is the archetype of of communication in its own right. More modern poetic inspiration. Romance languages continued the tradition of musical poetry into the Middle Ages, The roots of poetry and music are inextricably through the ballad form taken up by travelling entwined. Alexander Pope’s translation of The Troubadours. Sold and sung on street corners Iliad throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the

begins: 49 Romantic period later adopted the ballad with Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring gusto, notably with William Wordsworth and Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing! Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s collaboration, the Lyrical Ballads (1798).The German Romantic Considered the first example of classical period saw a huge rediscovery of volk music literature, Homer’s Iliad, also known as the and ballads which were integrated into ‘high ‘Song of Ilium’, has a history as complex as its culture’, Goethe and Schiller composed ballads plot. One thing is certain; it was not written by that would later be set to music by Schubert, ‘Homer’. The Iliad exists today as the product and the volk tradition continued across Europe of sedimentary retellings of a story memorised well into the 20th century. and performed by oral poets known as aoidoi. Across generations of performances, the ‘Song To deny song-writing from the field of Literature of Ilium’ became ingrained in the collective is to deny the very origins of Literature. consciousness, well before the invention of Nonetheless, the award of this year’s Nobel writing. Prize for Literature to the musician Bob Dylan has sparked outrage worldwide. The permanent The tradition of poetical-musical performance secretary of the Swedish Academy defended endured even after the birth of the Greek the choice, remarking that, ‘if you look back alphabet in 800 BCE. Greek tragedy was 2,500 years or so, you discover that Homer’s performed to music, with a section called the poetic texts were meant to be listened to,

Literature 50 H TMS HY R A-CHANGING. -BOB DYLAN ARE THEY HAND A-CHANGING. TIMES YOUR ARE THEY THE LEND TIMES ONE THE CAN’T NEW FOR THE YOU AGING COMMAND OF RAPIDLY IF OUT IS GET YOUR ROAD PLEASE OLD DAUGHTERS BEYOND YOUR YOUR AND ARE SONS YOUR Artwork byEleanor Johnson SAVAGE

to be performed, often with instruments. It’s greatest benefit to mankind’. Prizes were meant the same way with Bob Dylan’. Dylan himself to support young talent; those in need of funds recognises a ‘Homeric value’ in songs like to make the world a better place. The diversity ‘Blind Willie’, ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’, and of subjects for which prizes are awarded ‘A Hard Rain’. demonstrates that Nobel’s appreciation for excellence extended across the disciplines. For While Bob Dylan is not a ‘wrong’ choice, is this reason, it hardly seems likely he would have he a good choice—or have the Swedish condoned the segregation of song and poetry. Academy lost sight of the founding principles Nevertheless, how should we be directing these of the Nobel? Alfred Nobel is famous for Nobel funds now to best reward and encourage two things; creating the good work? In patronising Bob Dylan, we see Nobel Prize and inventing a departure from the dynamite. These are original aims of the linked by one fundamental Nobel: the seventy- aspect of Nobel’s life: five-year-old singer, money. The Nobel Prize worth an estimated $80 does not only confer million, is reaching the end of one of music’s worldwide recognition; it 51 is a monetary prize, with most illustrious careers. winnings derived from the Although central to the profits of commercialising cultural landscape of dynamite. In 1818, the twentieth century, obituaries published few would argue that prematurely dubbed Nobel Dylan has conferred a particular greatness ‘Le marchand de la mort’ to mankind during the (the merchant of death). last year; and what Disconcerted by this, the difference will this money make to his work? inventor attempted to clean up his reputation, founding the Nobel Prizes in an effort to be I would not have awarded the Nobel Prize to seen instead as a merchant of innovation. Bob Dylan, for the same reason I would not have awarded it to Homer. In the furthering of Alfred Nobel was not only an inventor but a literature, we must look to the future rather businessman. Having lived a large proportion of than reminiscing about the past. Although Dylan his life in poverty, he understood that money has influenced us all, it is young people who will was essential to the realisation of great ideas. create the next great literary inventions, and it In his will, Nobel determined that the prizes is young people who need the money to do so. should be awarded ‘to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the

Literature 52 n e smnl oe o fml depression female Jar The Bell of novel seminal her In etr sot tr wies ui Bri and Berlin Lucia writers story short twentieth century the for improve, to beginning is about discourse female open mental health today. While the an situation of creation the of the treatment of mental illness has hindered family roles. This deep-rooted gendered history and work fulfilling cheerfully women featured them. As recently as the ’90s, Prozac adverts with among treated Plath Sylvia therapy; patients electroconvulsive of majority the up So-called vein. this in followed has illness mental of treatment debauchery’; to suddenly herself gives woman ‘ that wrote Bouchereau Gustave psychiatrist the 1892, In studied. be to object female a and thought objective masculinized between distinction a was psychology like discourses scientific modern many of development the chose scientists century 19th disturbances, emotional denote to term a seeking When history. throughout concept gendered a been head’—has your illness—having Mental head’. my with wrong something than body my with wrong anything have rather would hystera insanity must be suspected and looked for if a Muted Confessions enn wm. udmna to Fundamental womb. meaning 16) Sli Pah wrote, Plath Sylvia (1963), ‘ ytra fo te Greek the from hysteria’ ‘ Emma Desphandeonovercomingtaboosofmentalillness. ytrcl oe’ made women’ hysterical ‘ something wrong with wrong something ‘ I nes hl-ui wrd hc peet a presents which world half-lucid a enters he alcoholics, are whom of both couple, a to who lawyer male befriends his clients: a as the lawyer grows closer by alcohol but of throes dependency, the in woman a by not narrated being for out stands Smile’ You See story The time. first the for rehab entering woman a to night, the of middle the in alcohol buy to desperate mother a from alcoholism: of stages various in characters for CleaningWomen Lucia Berlin’s short story collection, place forexaminationoftheirstruggles. best the fiction made health mental female of Alice Munro the stigma surrounding discussions to Carlotta’s stigmatized lifestyle. While Berlin While lifestyle. stigmatized Carlotta’s to foil a as narrator male corporate high-paid, a providing experiences, her share not did who an accessible narrative perspective for readers offer to wished Berlin Perhaps of dependency. accounts punctuates autobiographical that more anxiety Berlin’s and shame the with sharply contrasts and abuse alcohol of glamorisation the acknowledges Smile’ You relationship. flawed couple’s the romantic renders and life corporate lawyer’s the from respite a symbolise to comes Liquor alcohol. of portrayal alluring more and new 17) features (1977), ‘ Let Me See Me Let A Manual ‘ e Me Let

54 hc mna iles s goe ad pushed and ignored is illness mental which in ways to attention drawing extent some to Although men. a burden to meant as not problem issue the presenting disorder, eating of purging. Arthur never learns about his wife’s for her brother-in-law during her sister’s periods and only does so when telling us about cooking story, the through halfway until readers us to Et, forgoes mentioning the eating disorder even from bulimia for many years. The suffering narrator, her sister after attack heart a of dies Char character the when fatal proves stigma ‘ In women. of suppression the to link its and the stigma we have been discussing demonstrates elegantly well-being, Julie’s than rather approval, man’s the over Concern her. like not will friend male her that worries and admissions Julie’s by is embarrassed narrator The wine. of glasses several stranger—after a hitherto friend— her and narrator nameless female the to story the tells Julie confession: poignant a not is It purging. subsequent and eating binge of experiences her relates Julie character the Stories’, Luck In bulimia. of subject the to approach her in self-censored more even is Munro Alice perspective. male a of prism the through alcohol of appeal the acknowledge to able only is she that such is illness mental suggests surrounding stigma the this that characters, female her with addiction of hardships the explore to able is Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You’ this ‘ Hard made UK mental health services less accessible we getverylittleaccesstoitsexperience. manner, evasive roundabout, a in happen only can bulimia like issues with of be Discussion can Arthur. Et than more any reader her with explicit be cannot Munro fictionalization: Tell You title, the Moreover, presence. their in it trivializing or characters male from of it narratives—hiding her fringes the in it of experience the keep to forced seems author the margins, the into will nowbeabletomovefurtheron. writers more legacy their to thanks that hope mental illness feel unable to discuss it. We can from suffer who those as long as noteworthy particularly societal remain that and triumphs personal obstacles; over triumphs but Their stories are not only artistic achievements, work. their through conversation encouraging of part important an been have Munro and evasion of tacking mental illness head on, Berlin and muting gendered the Despite patients. to 17) eat te ae relegating same the enacts (1974), Something I’veBeenMeaningto Something tm we aseiy us have cuts austerity when time a at this 2014; and 2013 between suicide 14% by increased England in rates Female endures. taboo insidious the Yet shame. without and openly illness her about speaks twenties, her in depression from suffered who Rowling, J.K. break: to beginning undoubtedly is illness mental around hush enforced The SAVAGE

Artwork by Ned Botwood 56 from his own; both a dystopian critique and a and critique dystopian a both own; his from In Utopia left. a the to as father and thinker More humanist venerate commonly Scholars author, in1516,ofthesingulartext and scholar, Catholic VIII, Henry to Chancellor reads this script name: another written was state honours under Russian Communism, there of recipients other and Engels, Marx, Beneath that had burst forth in October the revolt year before. of seeds the sowed had who thinkers the list: simple a with 1918 in re-inscribed was swept Russia. By order of Lenin, the monument of Romanov legends as the chaos of revolution province in 1914, the stone was soon stripped Russian every of arms of coats the with Tsars the by Engraved Moscow. central in Gardens Aleksandrovskiy the in large loomed monolith colossal a century, a of short year one For Theo TamblyndeconstructsMore’sreputationasaCommunistforefather. MONUMENTALISING THOMASMORE ‘ ouet bls’ o hnue great honoured now Obelisk’ Monument he imagined a society radically different ‘ h MR; hms More, Thomas MOR’; Sh. Ш . МОР . In Latin In . Utopia . own life followed a path which seems alien to alien seems which path a followed life own More’s and Communism, of tenets central the of however, reveals motivations irreconcilable with analysis closer A government. Communist ever first the up setting those to appealed experiment this that surprise no is It a centrally administered system of government. and finance, and property communal on based was society this experiment, thought utopian resaelbu. iies r asge to assigned are Citizens free—slave—labour. The functionality of the Utopian state rests on desirable inarealsociety. or feasible either be to policies these believed More that suggest to Yet evidence little is there healthcare. centrally-administered and religion, of freedom equality, gender nominal of propositions In the past, much has been made of the social magnum opus the principles of both Communism and his own . Utopia ; chief among which are which among chief ; Utopia , SAVAGE

different tasks based on ability, and dissenters justice as Chancellor to Henry VIII. As the are distributed to conformist households as influence of the Lutherans reached England, slaves. Food, water and supplies are provided More endeavoured with great zeal to quash free on application, but in return the Utopians the bourgeoning Protestantism, employing must abandon the concepts of property and torture and burning heretics at the stake. privacy, and live in a world where locks and When political expediency subsequently led private meetings are forbidden. This fascinates Henry VIII to the Reformation, the Chancellor More’s narrator, but beneath this surface we was driven to choose between King and Pope; are invited to be more suspicious. choosing the latter he was swiftly executed. How do we understand More’s writing in the Utopia’s distinctly illiberal stance (on what light of his life: was his Utopia a critique of might now be considered ‘liberal’ issues) is the totalitarian regime that would have him illuminating. Utopian collectivism relies on a executed, or a model for the new centralised degree of self-sacrifice which would be nigh- state he had helped administrate? on impossible to achieve with real human subjects. Indeed, the impossibility of the The Monument Obelisk no longer stands in

Utopian model seems crucial to More’s thinking. the Aleksandrovskiy Gardens. It was quietly 57 The name ‘Utopia’ derives from the Greek ‘no demolished in 2013, one year short of its place’ as much as ‘good place’. Despite its centenary and just three years before the 500th obvious efficiency, the sterility of such an anniversary of Utopia’s publication. Despite ordered system is horrifying and repellent in More’s sometime reputation as a radical, his its oppressiveness. Contrasting the chaotic inclusion on the Monument Obelisk seems a depiction of Europe bemoaned in the first strange decision. In fact, More’s name seems part of the book, More demonstrates through to anticipate the eventual collapse and failure Utopia the futility of aspiring towards an ideal of the USSR, as much as its hopeful beginning. society considering that it is impossible to rid Pitting their success against all the individual humans of possessions. Utopia dramatises the desires of the world, the Revolutionaries were implausibility of aligning all individuals with the drawn into a long and bitter struggle, drawn motivations of the state. along lines that Utopia indicates. For Russia, much like More’s England, the formation of an If Utopia is conceived as a satiric impossibility, ideology of central state power led to heresy we can perhaps forgive More for the ill- trials and bloodshed. In Utopia, Thomas More treatment of his allegorical citizens. It is harder seems himself to have known that a society of to extend the same forgiveness to his actions perfect unity is beyond reach. as Chancellor. More was a member of the religious aristocracy and dispenser of arbitrary

Literature 1658 into my eyes and brings colour to my vision. Splotches of red clouded red of Splotches vision. my to colour brings and eyes my into something forthosevoices.Forthem,Ilisten. That type of voice is accompanied with a pressure, so I feel I must do against myear. up sometimes they’reright and his, like me, behind or really matter why? it Does things. the do I Regardless, lips. my against arm, my back, my pressure—on by accompanied they’re because that’s maybe Or something. do to supposed I’m know I louder, stronger, are they so my consciousness is narrated by the rhythm of his sentences. When now I’dunderstandevenless. listen to tried I if think I ago. time long a was That then. by listening you wantsockstoday?It’scoldoutside. on now, move your arm so I can put on your jumper. Lift your feet. Do Come today. one until slept you Silly, sense: any make didn’t said he him anymore. can’t remember now, but that doesn’t matter. I can’t wake up without I him? for ask I Did body. my moves and eyes my opens that whisper A voice. his with begins day the morning, Every clock. alarm an is He Emma Deshpande dampness on my skin that lingers after the voices have left. Maybe left. have voices the after lingers that skin my on dampness a leaves It lips. of set one only with kiss a forehead: my On voices. birthday. ThelasttwowordsIrecognise butnolongerunderstand. with black. They say the same things: Hello. How are you? Also: happy VOICES When there are voices in front of me, the noise runs right runs noise the me, of front in voices are there When Of courseIdon’treply.knowhowam. Hello, theysay.Theyspeaksoslowly.Howareyou? me, of front in they’re Sometimes voices. other are There always, him, hear still can I anyway. easier is listening Not stopped I’d but bedroom, my left we once things Other things the but listen, to tried I Once incessantly. talks He There is a pressure I don’t like accompanied by these colour SAVAGE

that’s why I think it lasts longer—I can’t listen when I’m thinking about that strange, cold patch in the centre of my forehead. Most days are very quiet. I hear his murmur and the only sensation on my skin is dripping food or saliva. That is much, much worse than the residue of a kiss. It moves. I feel the trail down my jaw, a hardened film that cannot evaporate because I cannot make myself do anything without someone else’s pressure. I have to sit aware of its itch and unable to forget the sensation of a drip long gone, fallen and absorbed somewhere below my head. When he notices, his solution to these stains are more words and pressure on the skin around my mouth. It’s unique because it’s rough, leaves my skin raw. I tingle. I love it. There is another word that I hear through the pressure on my ear. Grandad. I forget it often because the voices become frail when they say it. Shrill. It’s uncomfortable. I don’t understand it but I know I don’t like it. They say it so delicately but that’s not how it feels in my mind: heavy, as though it should be important. Something else I’ve forgotten. 59

Recently, there have been a lot of slow voices. More in 17 my ear than in front of me, so it’s easy to listen. I think about my words—theirs, really, but I’ve adopted them. Hello. How are you. Happy birthday. Grandad. I think about them after I’m listening so I can practise them. Hello. My lips and my tongue should do something about these. How are you? If I could open my mouth and hold it there, would that give me a voice? Happy birthday. I don’t know how I’d know if I had a voice, because the noise wouldn’t be against my ear or my eyes but out in the world, travelling away from me. Grandad. No, I wouldn’t be able to keep it with me the way I can keep my thoughts with me. I don’t have enough control. If he could move my mouth the way he moves my body, I could speak. Pressure wouldn’t be enough. If he could do anything for me, I’d want him to lift my head up by the ears so quickly that my mouth would fall open. I’d have a voice before I could think about it. But I don’t know how to ask him. And besides, he’s not the one I listen to. He must know that. I think he would speak slowly like the others if he wanted me to listen. I don’t listen to him and he knows and doesn’t care so he doesn’t listen to me. I know. Which means I shouldn’t care, either.

ShowcaseLiterature 60 Arden andEdwardBond. ‘ the as known playwrights political fiercely of working class British drama, written by a group play’s dated—the of influx an to led it undeniable: is significance seem can speechifying Jimmy’s because part today—in performed rarely is Anger in Back Look Though up’. it of theatre, [it] set off a land mine and blew most play the how described who Sillitoe, Alan novelist of that was voices approving few play’s the Amongst stage. on board ironing and an of flat presence the one-bedroom grubby a in setting play’s the to objected many critics; by filthy’ deemed was life class working of depiction candid Osborne’s Establishment. British post-war the of patriotism and elitism the against rails who Porter, Jimmy antihero, class working Osborne’s of artillery verbal the by alarmed were Theatre Court Royal the to Visitors audience. its from gasps provoked it Back inAnger Osborne’s John when that it has Legend Alastair Curtisontheatre’suniqueabilitytoshockitsaudience. IN YERFACETHEATRE Angry Young Men’, including the likes of John of likes the including Men’, Young Angry 15) a frt performed first was (1956) ‘ int otiue o British to contribute didn’t ‘ unspeakably Look n Seah Delaney’s Shelagh and Wesker’s Arden’s like works seminal and century twentieth early the of drama drawing-room the replaced realism sink Kitchen audience. its shock to unafraid and confrontational was that one language: theatrical new radical a church—birthed and monarchy government, the institutions—like social traditional with disaffection widespread when drama British in moment the defining in tool helpful a remains it but contentious, is it The label subjects her play touches upon—alcoholism, upon—alcoholism, touches play her subjects the but well, world this knew Delaney Salford. of streets cobbled the along place taking families impoverished of tragedies the below: from seen as life dramatised Delaney to director William Gaskill. In ‘ of effect the had drama whose Men’, Young the with originated that idea it an was but now, commonplace is society about can provoke a plays conversation with their audience that belief The disadvantaged. the of struggles the staging for acclaim won (1958) speaking directly to the audience’, according audience’, the to directly speaking ‘ Chicken Soup with Barley Chicken Soupwith Angry Young Men’ is as imprecise as Live LikePigs A Taste of Honey A Taste ofHoney 15) Arnold (1958), (1961) ‘ ‘ taboo’ Angry ,

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homosexuality and racism—shocked audiences. was permissible on stage. It was in the 1990s Like her ‘Angry Young Men’ contemporaries, that the confrontational spirit of the Angry Delaney used shock tactics in order to establish Young Men found a new incarnation: ‘in-yer- a conversation with her audience and society face theatre’, a challenging wave of drama at large, directly confronting its prejudice and which critic Aleks Sierz characterises as ‘taking discrimination. an audience by the scruff of the neck and shaking until it gets the message’. The work of Theatre as a medium holds a specifically potent playwrights like Mark Ravenhill and Sarah Kane ability to shock because the subversion it was marked by a new frankness of tone that stages unfolds in real time, performed by real took its ideological inspiration from Artaud’s people at close proximity to the audience. There Theatre of Cruelty and the belief that the can be no escape once the lights go down, depiction of violence on stage can invigorate forcing audience members to bear witness to— theatre by freeing it from ethical constraints. hence become complicit in—scenes of extreme Kane’s Cleansed (1998) is a play only for the violence and emotional suffering. With Saved strong-stomached. This mysterious play is set (1965), Edward Bond’s harrowing tale of urban in an institution ruled by the sadistic Tinker, poverty, the Angry Young Men adopted the who tests the limits of loving couples by use of transgressive acts on stage in order way of incest, mutilation and rape. Ravenhill’s 61 to redefine the theatrical form. Bond’s play Shopping and Fucking (1996) is another is notorious to this day for its scene in which catalogue of casual cruelty, which makes a baby is cruelly stoned to death; a scene creative use of a drill. that completely changed the face of British drama. Since the eighteenth century, the Lord While it is impossible to divorce these works Chamberlain’s Office censored obscenity in from the context of Thatcherite Britain, ‘in- plays before they reached the stage. Though yer-face’ writers direct their frustration with Saved was banned from performance, the society into an apolitical perversion of morality. Royal Court Theatre continued with its premiere Recent revivals of Cleansed and Shopping and criminal charges were filed against the and Fucking have packed out auditoriums, theatre. A groundswell of public support for producing sensational media headlines about the theatre’s artistic integrity, alongside a fainting, complaints and mass walkouts. large media campaign, eventually resulted in However, audience responses imply their the abolition of theatrical censorship by 1968. attraction is puerile rather than political, unlike their Angry Young Men predecessors. ‘In- Liberated from the Lord Chamberlain’s Office yer-face theatre’ pares life to the bone, but and buoyed by Saved’s success, British drama without its politics, it fails to touch a nerve. began to experiment with the limits of what

Artwork by Alba Sanzo Sahagún 62 structures by which identity is organized. James Boswell wrote in wrote Boswell James organized. is identity which by complex structures and timeframes huge through fascinating the reveals conventions stage whizz at glancing again but simplification, To risks structures social century. mid-eighteenth the to forward Leap these associationscouldbetoa certain,qualifieddegreeunfettered. where space a providing stage the with identity, of structures Elizabethan to ways literal unnervingly one perceived only which culture, their from alienated were women which to degree the with do to more had practice this perhaps homosociality, theatre’s fed restrictions Sumptuary reputation as a from subversive space. However, while staging freedom two male actors as lovers, of actors’ course, implies of potential kaleidoscopic unique, the Similarly, reading. homoerotic a expect would audience the Juliet male a cast production modern a If girls. as up dressed boys including wore, they what to according nationality or class age, gender, character’s a accepted outfit, of basis the on status recognise play to trained to Audiences, roles. actors multiple required often and companies, theatre from day each play new a demanded which apart from top-flight aristocrats. Stage costumes were vital character signposts in a theatrical culture from these laws; the only people legally permitted to saunter around in purple silk, sable fur, or silver could be said, thought, felt’, or so says the critic Stephen Greenblatt. Actors were the sole exemption determined clothes Elizabethan symbol, status a only Not right. pyramid divine Queen’s the by headed a to according all rank, social to closely tied identity, out marked They hierarchy. visible a enforce to practically used self-expression—were of form ultimate the as of think now we what detailed legislation explained which materials and styles were available to which social ranks. Clothes— Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws give a whole new meaning to the idea that clothes define us. The highly asks whetherbyassuminga to their costumes both on stage and off. A snapshot of theatrical costumes at two different moments historical ways different the audiences have looked clues: at costumes reveal further complexly changing understandings give of how characters costumes relate Stage McCracken. Grant anthropologist ‘ h picpe o a ol ae on wvn no h fbi o is ltig, codn t the to according clothing’, its of fabric the into woven found are world a of principles The Sophia ComptonlooksattheatricalcostumesfromShakespearetonow. Self-Fashion, ‘ new look’someonecanfundamentally changewhotheyare. Darling ‘ complete’ sex: the male. Clothes seem to be tied in tied be to seem Clothes male. the sex: complete’ TheLondonMagazine of the of ‘ what SAVAGE

‘mysterious power’ by which an actor literally ‘is what we behold’: contemporary commentators debated whether Garrick, the A-list actor of the day, had been so transformed by donning the physical and metaphorical guise of Macbeth that he should be jailed for treason. Boswell presents identity as something literally mutable, shedable, transformable—with dress as the key agent of these change. It is hard to conceive of a period in history when clothes held more power to actually alter character. Stories abound of people losing their identity in the middle of a masque, or girls passing as men for decades in the army: this was a culture that obsessed over the sex of the cross-dressing diplomat the ‘Chevalier d’Eon’. Off-stage, Boswell can don the clothes of a ‘Blackguard’ and literally become one for the night. For the duration of the act, an adopted character is accepted to ‘be’ a person’s identity, just like Garrick on stage really is Macbeth. The transformative potential of theatrical and social costumes seems disconcertingly literal. A caveat here: the options were not unlimited, identity performance was dictated by (male, patriarchal) social politeness, and the fascination with aberrations was perhaps more of a fashionable source of laugher than a conscious destabilisation of norms. Nonetheless, like never before (and perhaps never again) people thought that costume could instantly and fundamentally change identity.

These two ways of viewing costume seem radically material: clothes are identity, they don’t express it. Identity, in these moments, was not inner, stable, essential or tied to biology, but something worn on the surface. Costumes in theatre were steeped in power and politics: an anomaly in the Elizabethan 63 hierarchy, and then a portal through which eighteenth-century actors could literally become new characters. However, the potential of this materiality to subvert patriarchal structures had major limits.

So where are we now; what does this mean for the present? Let’s start once again by looking at clothes in our theatres: while much costume follows a 19th century model of communicating inner characteristics, productions also manipulate the subversive power of androgynous dress, drag, colour or gender-blind casting and significantly anachronistic costume design. Rather than asking you to read identity directly from dress, costumes can now probe and obfuscate notions of identity. Clothes have lost the immediate (even God-given) power they once had to confer or shape identity (although anyone who’s ever found themselves walk/talk/eat/thinking in a different way because of a ballgown or tracksuit might wonder…).

Off-stage outfits now seem to be doing just as much work in terms of performance as their theatrical counterparts. However, as pointedly-evasive stage styles imply, we seem to be learning how to use clothes to question identity structures. More than ever before they are used as non-normative statements—think of the use of outfits in Queer clubbing scenes. Postmodern debates about how our identities and bodies are written by culture has shown the limits of our powers to self-fashion, but this inspection of limits has revealed which borders can be challenged—until this horizon becomes the new norm. Judith Butler has the definitive word on this, distinguishing between the conscious, skilled performances—for instance of the stage—and the performative process that forms our identity, whose lines have been written by culture and which becomes real through mundane, ritualized, and mostly unconscious repetition. This awareness of limits has broadened the scope of what it is possible to wear, think, or be.

Theatre 64 originally performed. The theatre’s most recent most theatre’s The performed. originally were they as plays on put to attempted 1997 since has Globe Shakespeare's impunity). with cut were texts that meant changes scene long the paradoxically (although setting and dress in productions were fixated with historical accuracy Victorian unadulterated. staging and texts Shakespeare’s keep have to movements there been modernisations radical as well as and restyled But playwright. other any than more rewritten, reimagined been have plays death, his Shakespeare’s since years 400 the In Uri Inspectorexploreshow(not)tomoderniseShakespeare. 21ST CENTURYSHAKESPEARE Artwork byIsabellaChildsandPoppyWood ‘ realistic’ concentration camps and anarchism. She made She anarchism. and camps concentration to references integrating idea, this embodied fairy-tale Andersen Christian Hans classic the of adaptation Her Kneehigh. stories in her work with Cornish theatre company urge to bring contemporary an relevance to showed age-old Rice career, early her Throughout modernised has resurfaced. what ways,Shakespeareshouldbe fired. Thedebateastowhy,andin contemporary technology, and was subsequently of use and this alteration textual through subverted tradition Rice, Emma director, artistic o xmn ise fcn te contemporary Michael US. the in the community African-American facing issues examine to all-black astounding, Macbeth Welles’ Orson In 1936, society. contemporary to relevance his texts in finding Shakespeare, reading liberated have who directors century a 20th of of tradition footsteps the in follows Rice such, As a date-rapedrug. became essence flower’s the as abuse, sexual with aligned was scheming Oberon’s Similarly, script. the elucidated also but complemented casting of the a male Helena, in with a way that not sexuality only and gender of explored fluidity stage, the Globe the on incursion first alienation. modern depict to characters archetypal of use rw n h pa’ pltcl realism political play’s the on drew A MidsummerNight’s Dream, The RedShoes her

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Bogdanov used modern dress and an emphasis an adaptation purportedly centered around the on abuse to depict oppressive patriarchy in character Imogen, losing a possibly innovative The Taming of the Shrew (RSC, 1978). In feminist refocusing of Cymbeline. The mystery film, Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho remains as to why Rice was initially hired by such a committedly traditional theatre given (1991) retold the Henry IV plays in a way that her reputation for radical performance; was it expanded on themes of family while exploring that the Globe want to cash in on her proven gay identity and love. Again and again, the ability to sell tickets? Whatever the answer, the ability of Shakespeare’s plays to reach into our experiment has been cut short. lives all the way from the 16th century has been demonstrated; this is the essence of how The reason Shakespeare lends himself time and to modernise Shakespeare well. time again to adaptation is the universality of his themes and characters. His plays should Rice’s attempted innovations at the Globe, be modernised: Elizabethan society centred on however, have been inconsistent and sometimes antiquated values and society has changed since. gratuitous. While making the Dream accessible We need modernised versions of Shakespeare to a broader audience is laudable, its setting just as much as we must continually return to in Hoxton verged on a cheap play for laughs. Shakespeare’s original texts (even if only as Rice’s irreverence for the text, expressed in a point of departure). Modern retellings can the aside ‘Why is everybody so obsessed with counteract ideas in Shakespeare’s plays, like the 65 text?’, at times seems subversive for the sake conflation of beauty and virtue, that now seem of subversion. Script alterations can enliven a preposterous, or even dangerous. However, text and reveal unthought-of dimensions, but there is no danger of modern interpretations they need to be justified by strong and clear ending with Rice’s tenure. In fact, this might underpinning intentions. Rice’s desire for change lead to a return to form from her. has focused on accessibility and entertainment value. Sometimes this worked to engage with On the other side of the coin, the Globe’s contemporary issues—her tenure has seen mission to present Shakespeare’s plays as they incredible involvement of deaf actors and would have been performed can be intellectually, audiences—but at other times it came at the culturally and artistically stimulating for expense of meaningful theatre. There has always audiences. The theatre is not only an academic been a temptation for voguish reworkings which resource: audiences new to Shakespeare are can sell tickets: John Dryden transformed time and again surprised by how relevant, The Tempest into a comic opera because of funny and approachable the works can be in opera’s contemporary popularity and Nahum their original formats, and leave feeling the bearing that such old plays can have on their Tate imposed a happy ending on King Lear lives. An imposing style in itself is not the only reflecting the Restoration idea that theatre is end of productions. Modernisation should not a tool for morality. The Hoxton setting of the merely facilitate understanding and interest, but Dream Imogen’s (Cymbeline and renamed) should primarily enlighten both the text and the location in modern gangland seem similarly audience. incongruous. Imogen’s patronising caricature of youth culture added little to the meaning of Theatre 66 67 Louis Cross, Louis Cross, Manager Media Social Joanna L. G. Hobbs, Joanna L. G. Hobbs, Graphic Design Georgie Hurst, Read Curator Ryan McMeekin, Music Sub-Editor Charlie Macnamara, Senior Editor Art Sub-Editor Isabelle Bucklow, Isabelle Bucklow, Music Editor Sophie Nevrkla, Sophie Nevrkla, Marina Sholtz, Sholtz, Marina Art Editor Sophia Compton, Compton, Sophia Editor-in-Chief Elliot C. Nash, Graphic Design Beatrice Bowles-Bray, Bowles-Bray, Beatrice Literature Editor Emily Waldron, Emily Waldron, Curator Watch MacLellan, MacLellan, ë Our Journal Sub-Editor Benedict Holzmann, Film Sub-Editor Florence Wildblood, Isabel Webb, Events Treasurer & Zo Sounds Editor Daniel Lubin, Lubin, Daniel Sub-Editor Theatre James Dutton, James Dutton, Listen Curator Ha Vu, Ha Vu, Film Editor Hannah Beer, Beer, Hannah Our Journal Editor Nick Mastrini, Nick Mastrini, Editor Broadcast President SAVAGE Alastair Curtis, Rebecca Bainbridge, Rebecca Bainbridge, Editor Theatre Maddy Martin, Martin, Maddy Look Curator 68 Alba SanzoSahag Caycee Peskett-Hill Charlie Macnamara Diandra Zura IbrahimWafir CONTRIBUTORS Emma Deshpande Sophia Compton Eleanor Johnson Georgia Herman Tarquin Ramsay Thomas Rebour Rosemary Moss Nayoung Jeong Tom Parkhouse Ryan McMeekin Sophie Nevrkla Richard Magee Theo Tamblyn Beatrice Bacci Alastair Curtis Isabella Childs Fleur Elkerton Ned Botwood Flora Thomas Rosanna Ellul Uri Inspector Louise Camu Nick Mastrini Nell Nicholas Poppy Wood Nikita Singh Luke Farley Leah Aaron Alice Aedy Hatice Cin Marek Maj Ş ov ă ilescu ú n

[Blow to the Head]