SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Best of 2024: Andy Hedgecock
Two books and a film that examine cultural excavation and the impact of place on behaviour
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
PAUL KNOX’s London: A History of 300 Years in 25 Buildings (Yale, £25) is a salmagundi of celebration, inquest, polemic and prophecy.
Each chapter is the biography of a building in which architectural analysis triggers thoughts on fashion, morality, marketing, celebrities, ergonomics, local government and the collision of past and present. These apparently digressive ideas coalesce into a meta-narrative of the city’s evolving identities.
The oldest building considered is a neoclassical townhouse of the 1750s; the newest is Google’s state-of-the-art UK headquarters (opening in 2025).
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ANDY HEDGECOCK invites readers to contribute short fiction to our arts pages, offers some guidance and picks a few favourites
ANDY HEDGECOCK explores the implications of a recent statistical study of music lyrics that highlights the role of monopoly capital in silencing complexity
ANDY HEDGECOCK is compelled by a novel that challenges the assumption that atomic science is pure, objective and politically neutral
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in an open-minded exploration of music that provokes reflection on the determinants of musical taste
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ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends the application of ‘Gothic Marxism’ for its memorable portrayal of the physical violence done to working people
Yorkshire chills, tangled in the dark web, pregnancy diaries and brackish juice: MARIA DUARTE reviews Starve Acre, Red Rooms, My First Film and Beetlejuice
ANGUS REID speaks to Angus Farquhar about the political roots of his work with communities from the 1980s to the present day, and why he is inviting everyone to plant seeds in Glasgow Necropolis