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indigo Durham’s hidden hinterland

+ Terry Eagleton talk reviewed + Pink Floyd special + Booze and the society social

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Kate Wilkinson (dept. Sraddha Venkataraman) - indigo@palatinate.org.uk

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INDIGO 3 F EATURES

We explore the socials of the lesser known societies 4 & 5 TRAVEL

A journey through the hidden heritage of Durham’s hinterland

6 & 7 B O OKS At the Durham Book Festival we discover two revolutionary figures: Laura Bates and Jesus Christ

8 FASHION Are fashion and feminism incompatible?

9 FOOD & DRINK Student-run Barking Baking Company share a recipe 1 0 F I L M & TV We look at the hit series Breaking Bad one year on 1 1 S TAGE As we begin the month of remembrance we look at war on stage 1 2 & 1 3 MUSIC We interview Andy Burrow and bring you a Pink Floyd special 1 4 V I SUAL ARTS Cerith Wyn Evan’s bold new show dazzles our reviewer 15 C R E ATIVE WRITING Our poets reflect on the theme ‘In Transit’ For more arts and lifestyle articles please visit www.palatinate.org.uk www.facebook.com/palindigo @palatindigo Cover photo byJohn Halstead Illustrations by Mariam Hayat

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hich society socials have you been on so far this year?

These are events where you can build team spirit, embarrass yourself in front of people you don’t know very well, remain in the hazy stupor of fresher’s week (if you’re a fresher), re-connect with the debauched dream of your youth(if you’re a finalist or postgraduate), and then see your society mates in a very different way forever after.

From this little sketch of a typical society social you might detect a strong whiff of alcohol. Most of these events take the form of a bar crawl and from the ‘boat race’ to ‘Mary’s challenge’ there has always been a staunch marriage between drinking games and society socials (albeit made in hell). In this issue, Features questions the boozey reputation of society socials and explores alternative possibilities. I cannot possibly reveal any details of our recent Palatinate social last Tuesday but I can say that it wasn’t as cool as those you might experience at Brunch society (p. 3).

We’re a few weeks in and already Durham can feel like a small place. Travel bursts the bubble revealing that there is far more to see and do in the Durham area than you might think.

From a demolished pit village to a medieval ruin, John Halstead takes you on a local tour (p. 4-5). Looking back at what has been a very literary month in Durham’s calendar, Books reviews two of the hottest Durham Book Festival events from speakers Laura Bates and Terry Eagleton (p. 6-7). Looking ahead to the release of Pink Floyd’s new album later this month, Music share with you their top ten Floyd tracks (p. 12-13).

In other news, you can now access Indigo’s new Style Guidance through our Facebook page. If you’re one of our contributors or you would like to be, this is a must-read.

Also keep an eye on the Palatinate website: Indigo will be undergoing a face-lift… KW

INDIGO EDITOR Kate Wilkinson

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DEPUTY INDIGO EDITOR Sraddha Venkataraman BOOKS EDITORS Atifa Jiwa Florianne Humphrey CREATIVE WRITING EDITOR Celeste Yeo FASHION EDITORS Jessica Ng Megan Magee FEATURES EDITORS Francesca Jaworska Zosia Eyres (deputy) FILM & TV EDITORS Jonathan Peters Caroline France (deputy) FOOD & DRINK EDITORS Anisha Mohan Tanya Birkett (deputy) MUSIC EDITORS Anastasia Symecko Will Throp (deputy) STAGE EDITOR Amy Price TRAVEL EDITORS Oliver Collard Naoise Murphy (deputy) VISUAL ARTS EDITOR Frances Marsh WRITERS

Hannah Evans Nell Lewis John Halstead Helena Grimmer Hugo Brown Hugo Camps-Harris Jonathan Peters Samantha Ball Will Throp Nicola Orrel David Thomas Cotter Polly Mackintosh Benedict Tan Cecilia Villacis Kathryn Orr PHOTOGRAPHY / ILLUSTRATION Mariam Hayat John Halstead Nell Lewis Asher Klassen Cecilia Villacis Grace Armatage Celeste Yeo

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Francesca Jaworska (dept. Zosia Eyres) - features@palatinate.org.uk

F EAT U R E S

sampling the socials

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Hannah Evans takes a look at the society socials that don’t normally make the headlines

ocials are an integral part of belonging to a society. They create the opportunity for integration between all years, courses and colleges in an informal environment. They offer the chance for members to bond over shared interests aside from their society, and have particular importance in sports teams. One college netball player described socials as essential to the team: “We have less training hours as a college and not all the girls get to mix with each other. Socials are the perfect time to talk to those from other courses, especially other years, so as a team we all get to know each other.”

More recently, however, society socials have received negative attention and ended up in the press for the wrong reasons. Last month the London School of Economics (LSE) disbanded its men’s rugby team after the publication of a booklet with homophobic and misogynistic content.

In 2012, the University of East Anglia (UEA) also dissolved a men’s sports team following a ‘bad taste’ themed social where members dressed up as Baby P, football manager Gary Speed, and Jimmy Savile. With the national papers and tabloids covering scandals like these, it gives the impression that all sport and society socials are a platform for out-of-control and inappropriate behaviour, fuelled by excessive drinking. Yet by looking at the variety of socials and activities that Durham’s sports teams and societies organise, it is clear that

The pennying of items was outlawed after an incident left college dishwashers broken and students eating off paper plates. this assumption cannot be made for them all.

Assassin is a particularly popular university campus game, and Durham University’s Assassins Society regards itself as “one of the most active in the world.” The society runs a number of games that can last between a few hours to a whole term. However, its most famous is the ‘long game’; where members sign up to play at the beginning of term and are given a list of approximately 70 people, complete with their addresses and academic courses. The challenge is to hunt them down and ‘assassinate’ them using one of several killing methods. These include poisoning their victims, achieved by sticking a label with ‘POISON’ clearly visible on something the player intends to eat or drink, or ‘electrocuting’ their chair.

“Some players use stealth and sneak up on people, or find their lecture timetables online,” explained the society’s president, “while others wander round the Science Site with a Nerf gun.” The society does also offer the opportunity to hang out without the threat of being assassinated, by running socials at different college bars where members can drink and talk in safety. Shorter duelling games with Nerf guns are often played during these bar-crawls, pro-

viding members with the opportunity to hone their skills. Although these socials often involve drinking, they are a far cry from the inappropriate and out-ofcontrol socials that are often reported in the press.

Brunch Society is one of the more notorious college societies, largely due to the nature of their socials. This is not, however, because they are fuelled by alcohol, but because they showcase a bizarre yet impressive appreciation for brunch food.

“We go to brunch. That is the very essence of Brunch Society,” explained one of the club’s most dedicated members. Unlike many socials, Brunch Soc socials take place in the day, at ‘brunch time’. There are strict rules for attire when attending, with members required to wear top half black tie, and bottom half pyjamas. Tardiness is not tolerated. So what makes these socials so infamous? Firstly, alcohol is completely banned.

“Not even a Tia Maria coffee (a per-

“We go to brunch. That is the very essence of Brunch Society” sonal favourite) will be tolerated.”

Instead of playing drinking games involving alcohol, members are required to down jugs of milk and orange juice and eat six Weetabix – dry. Rules include “apple juice right hand, orange juice left.”

Disobedience results in a ‘stern look’ – one member explains, “it’s just all about decorum.” The penny-

ing of items such as scrambled egg was outlawed in 2013 after an incident which left college dishwashers broken and students eating off paper plates.

Catholic Society run several events across the week, some focusing on religious aspects of the society, including Morning Prayer and discussion, others focussing on the more sociable side. One aspect of the society’s socials that distinguishes them from many other socials is that they do not want any of their members to feel pressured into drinking when attending. One member who frequently attends their socials told me, “last week we went on a ‘definitely-not-a-bar-crawl’ social. Although we did end in Jimmy’s, Catholic Society tries really hard not to make anyone feel like they have to drink.” Other socials include pub quizzes (the society’s commitment to the Duncow Pub could be considered religious), although again members have no obligation to drink.

It is unfair to label all university socials as outrageous, with out-of-control displays of debauchery and inappropriate behaviour, as the variety of socials on offer in Durham makes clear. It seems the societies that have suffered the most from this assumption are sports teams, with imbalanced press coverage of socials, such as those at LSE and UEA, creating a bad reputation for all.

While most socials do involve fancy dress, drinking games and competitions, they evidently do not have to push the boundaries in order to have fun.

Story by Hannah Evans Illustration by Mariam Hayat

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Ollie Collard - travel@palatinate.org.uk

T RAV E L

bursting the bubble

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John Halstead explores the hidden heritage of Durham’s hinterland

n Durham, plenty of us have a wide selection of exotic gap year travel anecdotes, but hardly anyone seems to manage to escape the ‘Bubble’ and explore what’s on our doorstep here in the North East. Here are a few places near Durham which are well worth a look if you ever have a spare afternoon.

HoughallThis is the remains of the original village of Houghall, just south of Maiden Castle. Originally a pit village, it was demolished in the 1950s and the surrounding industrial landscape was planted with trees. You can clearly see the outlines of the houses and the main street among the leaves. It feels quite surreal to think that they were still inhabited within living memory.

Belmont Viaduct There’s no shortage of woods around Durham, but the stretch going north along the river is particularly beautiful.

The path follows the east bank out of town, through some fields and then into a deep valley, with steep cliffs on either side at many points. If you can ignore the distant hum of the A1 and the occasional intrepid dog walker, you can feel completely cut off from the rest of the world. Go far enough and you’ll come across Belmont Viaduct, an enormous Victorian railway bridge now completely abandoned. There was a plan at one point to turn it into a cycle route, but for now it remains more or less untouched - if you look closely enough at the images you can see trees growing on top of it.

Nell Lewis visits Billy Elliot’s hometown, Easington

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tto, my 20-year-old, lurid turquoise Volkswagen Polo, creaked into action and off we went, beyond the borders of Durham City and out towards the neglected pit village of Easington; two southern students escaping the Durham ‘Bubble’.

My travel companion Louisa and I drove timidly into the town. It was a Saturday morning yet Seaside Lane - the ironic name of the village’s main street - was lined with shut shops and just a few young mothers leaning against the bus stop, cigarette in hand. The residential streets behind were packed with identical houses, washing lines brimming in the October sunshine. The Billy Elliot setting was unmistakable; the image helped along by children scootering, if not pirouetting, down the steep streets.

Billy Elliot, set in the fictional County Durham town of ‘Everington’, was mainly shot here in the year 2000, and every local seems to have a Billy Elliot story. One man told us proudly: “My old house

was Billy’s house.” We had seen both the film and the stage show and wanted to see the town for ourselves, wondering how it had coped since the crippling 1980s strikes portrayed in the film and the 1993 closure of the Easington mine. The result was quite depressing. Easington is now known for having the highest obesity levels in Britain, the highest proportion of white people, and for being the fourth most deprived area in the United Kingdom. “Should be called Hardington,” Louisa said.

“Life’s not so easy here.”

Our first stop was Easington Social Welfare Centre. Amazingly, the West End show was performed here on September 28th, with tickets costing only £1. The event schedule gave a hopeful picture of the social life of Easington – a Sunday tea dance, a Halloween fancy-dress party, and even a visit from DJ Krazy Ken. Inside we found a room full of pool tables and Richard, an Easington man born and bred, who, after a bit of probing, held forth on how “Easington hasn’t been the same since Thatcher

shut the pit.”

Richard was sixteen when the Easington mine closed, turning his future upside down. He had always planned on working in the pits as his father and grandfather had done before him. “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t look forward to working in the pits, but it was what I was geared up to. The pits closed; I was unemployed for the next 5 years.”

There was no confusion as to where the blame lay: “Thatcher. We had a party when she died.”

Richard gave us a sad picture of the dying community, the depleted number of businesses, the increase in drug use – 14-year-old children doing deals on the corner of his street. I asked whether the Social Welfare Centre helps to bring the community together. “People come from Leeds for the ballroom dances,” he replied more positively, but he still thought there should be more done to keep the younger generation off the streets, suggesting weekly rather than monthly discos.

We exited the village hall feeling depressed and even a little bit guilty. Richard had raged about the government’s neglect of the North. And there we were, two southern girls, enjoying our privileged

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Ollie Collard - travel@palatinate.org.uk

T RAV E L

Finchale Priory Finchale Priory is a pretty, medieval ruin about 4 miles north of Durham. It’s probably a bit far for all but the keenest walkers, but if you have a bike then there’s a very quiet and well-surfaced route which you’ll find if you follow the road out past the Radisson hotel. On the way you pass the forbidding sight of Frankland prison, which hosts a variety of colourful characters on the other side of its reassuringly sturdy looking walls, and a large complex of old military bunkers once used for storing ammunition. The final stretch of the road to the Priory belongs to the owners of the nearby caravan site. You have to negotiate their automatic barriers and passive aggressive notices, but once you get inside it’s every bit as peaceful as it must have been when it was first built. Most of the walls are still standing, and there are several hidden passageways and underground chambers which make it a fascinating place to explore.

Photographs by John Halstead Image courtesy of Universal studentPictures lives just 10 miles away. We strolled on, realising what outsiders we were. A teenage girl took a look at us and loudly and proudly turned towards us to burp. Three children on microscooters approached. The small boy looked up at us from underneath his peaked cap and exclaimed “Who the hell?” But his curiosity meant we got talking anyway.

We left our new-found friends and went for a walk along the cliff path. We battled the wind and returned the gruff “Hellos” of haggard, retired pitmen walking their equally forbidding dogs.

Despite the bright sky and refreshing crispness, even the North Sea had depressing undertones.

The heavy, grey waves crashing against the grey pebbles of the beach, and the large grey container ships on the horizon, all conjured up images of industrialisation and, teamed with the hung heads of the walking ex-miners, left us feeling disheartened at this purpose-built mining town which had been left without prospects.

A visit to any village must include a visit to the local pub. The Half Moon Inn was overflowing with Easington villagers for a Saturday pub lunch.

It had a friendly, lively atmosphere in which everyone seemed to know each other; no doubt we attracted more than a few intrigued stares.

We peered around at other diners’ meals, but it was hard to match what we saw to what was described on the menu. Everything was submerged in pools of gravy. The Saturday Special was ‘beef madras with rice and chips’. I wasn’t tempted, and opted instead for the steak sandwich, and Louisa went for the roast beef sandwich, costing £3.50 each. They were surprisingly good, if a shock to our southern palates. The steak and beef came out in hot dog buns, but the buns were inevitably sodden with the cups of gravy poured on top of them.

Perhaps we just haven’t acquired the taste of the north. “More gravy?” the waitress asked us, to which we replied, perhaps unappreciatively, “Just some ketchup please.”

Images courtesy of Alex Cupples

Photograph by Nell Lewis

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Atifa Jiwa and Florianne Humphrey - books@palatinate.org.uk

BOOKS

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durham book

Atifa Jiwa discusses #everydaysexism and why ‘lad culture’ is still acceptable in our society

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n the same week that Simon & Schuster published her book Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates appeared in the Women’s Hour power list alongside fellow ‘game-changers’ such as journalist and author Caitlin Moran and anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence. Speaking to Dr Mary Talbot at the Durham Book Festival this week, Laura addressed the online phenomenon of #everydaysexism and why it is that, in 2014, the British media are still asking the question “does sexism really exist?” instead of “what can we do about it?”

Laura’s #everydaysexism campaign sprang from what she describes as “humble origins” and a particularly bad week where she was followed home by a man, groped on the bus, and shouted at in the street by a group of men. It was because of this that she began to talk to other women about her experiences and question why she, like many others, accepted this kind of harassment as a normal part of life or as some embarrassing woman’s issue that shouldn’t be talked about.

However, sexism isn’t just a ‘woman’s issue’, and Bates argues that the stories she receives from men make it clear that this is a problem for everyone.

A man may email in a story about being ridiculed for requesting paternity leave in the same week that a woman writes about being denied a promotion specifically because she is seen as a ‘maternity risk’ despite having no plans to have children.

These two people aren’t dealing with separate issues but are both suffering from the same archaic stereotypes that have an incredibly negative impact.

Everyday Sexism isn’t by any means a book devoted to the view that ‘men are beasts’. Frankly, I’m surprised that people are so eager to deem anything with the word ‘feminist’ in it as some kind of ‘angry lesbian rant’ towards men. Even as I tweeted about how good the book festival was, I started receiving quite nasty messages from men telling me to ‘get back in the kitchen’ and asking me what I was wearing.

It struck me that if the simple action of tweeting about an event could stir up so many uncalled for comments, then what kind of online abuse must Laura Bates receive?

When asked about online harassment, Laura makes it clear that it’s not just these singular abusive tweets that cause

the main problem, but also the lengthy and often horrifically graphic emails she is sent. For someone in her position, it is perhaps easier for her to send them to the police and brush off the incidents.

However, as she highlights, if those same comments were aimed at other women or younger girls online, then there is a real danger of driving women out of these spaces, and silencing their views completely.

Addressing the question “Do you think sexism in University is getting worse?”, Bates answers with a categorical “Yes.” Mentioning both the Cuth’s Rugby Club who made headlines in 2013 for playing the game ‘It’s not rape if…’ at a social, and student -aimed websites such as ‘Uni-Lad’ which feature statistics like ‘85% of rape cases go unreported, that seems like fairly good odds’, Bates argues that a lot of sexual abuse gets dismissed as ‘banter’.

It is because sexual abuse has been normalised in society that Bates calls for a cultural shift in the way women are perceived and treated. She comments that universities need to “step up” and embrace a zero tolerance policy t o wards sexual harassment that is currently deemed acceptable under ‘lad culture’. In what w a s

Illustration by Harriet Jade Harrow

an inspiring and eye-opening talk, Bates highlights that sitting on the fence or looking the other way is no longer acceptable when it comes to sexism and if you’re still saying to yourself ‘Does sexism really exist?’ then you’re doing something very wrong.

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Atifa Jiwa and Florianne Humphrey - books@palatinate.org.uk

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BOOKS

festival

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Word of the Week

Bibliophagist: Someone who devours books.

Hannah Watson reports on the latest controversial pairing: Terry Eagleton and Jesus Christ

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enin and the Eucharist,Trotsky and Benediction...Eagleton’s past essays have warmed up to this latest controversial pairing, Terry Eagleton and Jesus Christ. One a formidable literary critic known for stirring up fellow intellectuals, the other a Galilean carpenter whose significance is still disputed today. The interesting mix of these two hugely debated figures was sure to make for a very interesting evening. In his talk, Eagleton answered the question “Was Jesus a Revolutionary?” and I couldn’t help but feel some trepidation as I stepped into the room to hear what he had to say.

Jesus Christ remains as relevant and compelling today as for the crowds that gathered in the 1st century AD The words “Jesus Christ, and that’s not an expletive” are the pithy beginning to Eagleton’s talk, setting a tone of gentle provocation. The fact that Eagleton has to make this precision says a lot about 21st century understandings of Jesus - for most he is reduced to a swear word, and yet for others, such as Eagleton himself, his fascination remains. “This is the youngest audience we’ve seen yet,” whisper a seasoned couple of festivalgoers behind me, suggesting that the topic of Jesus Christ remains as relevant and compelling today as for the crowds that gathered in the 1st century AD. Eagleton gets to his point within his next few sentences: that Jesus was almost

certainly executed as an alleged political rebel – the proof being the crucifixion, a death reserved almost entirely for political agitators. But was Jesus really an anti-Roman insurgent? Almost certainly not.

The key word here is ‘almost’, which peppers Eagleton’s talk. The truth is that Eagleton cannot say for sure what did or didn’t happen during the life of one of the most influential men in history.

Some of his arguments corroborate New Testament documents, such as that Jesus certainly kept company with some shady political figures. Other accounts, Eagleton argues, are rewritings by the Early Church, such as the Jewish crowd baying for Jesus’ blood, which allows Roman prefect Pontius Pilate to literally wash his hands of blame, and the first Christians to stay on the good side of the colonial authorities. Many of his readings of the Gospel accounts are incredibly attentive and insightful, whereas others discount or skate over them. As Eagleton doesn’t name his sources, it is hard to say just how much of the Gospel writings he stands by. Although he takes us on a tour expounding his views on figures such as Mary, the Pharisees and Judas Iscariot, the figure of Jesus remains enigmatic.

Uncertainty lingers over Eagleton’s title question, the consensus being that Jesus was revolutionary in his mingling with prostitutes and Samaritans, but did not belong to the anti-imperial resistance like the Zealots.

My wariness that Terry Eagleton’s talk might veer from flippancy to outrageousness was quickly allayed. He is more sympathetic to Christianity than one might guess, having been raised as a Catholic and served as an altar boy as a child. He is quick to denounce New Atheism and its most famous advocates, namely a certain Mr. Dawkins, who “buy their Atheism on the cheap.” During Eagleton’s time at

Cambridge he was involved in a leftist Catholic publication called The Slant, and he is grateful for having encountered a version of Christianity that challenged him as opposed to the paper tigers and tissue-thin targets often presented by Christians, easily bowled over by atheists. Warm and jovial, Eagleton cracked jokes throughout, peddled his “remarkably cheap and extraordinarily attractive” books for sale next door and likened the “spineless” Pontius Pilate of the gospels to a “Guardian reader.”

The spotlight turns back to Jesus’ death. Why was he crucified by a Roman authority that Eagleton maintains would have had little interest in a Galilean carpenter? Eagleton has several theories.

Hugely popular with the crowds at the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Romans may have feared that the dispossessed would see him as a vague answer to the oppression of the Roman occupation. Eagleton argues that Jesus certainly did not see himself in this role, nor consider himself the Son of God, often leaving others to apply labels to himself - “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20).

Eagleton’s Jesus goes to the cross bewildered – although this reading does negate the multiple times that Jesus predicts his own death in Luke’s Gospel alone (Luke 9:21, 44, 18:31). It may be that Jesus’ scandalous rebuking of the money-changers in the Temple would have been enough to have him arrested. Christians believe that Jesus’ death was the glorious life-bringing fulfilment of God’s salvation plan, but Eagleton reads it as a tragedy of the belief “that there can be no re-making without a prior breaking,” or as W.B. Yeats has it, “For nothing can be sole or whole./ That has not been rent.” Only in Jesus accepting death as a “cul-de-sac,” could it be made into “a horizon.” Ultimately, it was because he spoke out furiously for love and justice that Jesus was killed, a martyr who “makes something creative of his death to fructify in the lives of others.”

The talk, hugely engaging and thought-provoking, draws to a not entirely resolved close. The answers given by Eagleton will be deeply satisfying to some and utterly empty for others. However, one thing is for sure – that the debate isn’t over yet.

Photographs: Durham Book Festival

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Jessica Ng & Megan Magee - fashion@palatinate.org.uk

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FASHION

fashion’s feminist foray

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Are fashion and feminism incompatible? Helena Grimmer explores the debate

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t the Grand Palais in Paris, a formidable front row awaited Karl Lagerfeld’s latest Chanel collection with baited breath. The world was watching as the designer sent his models down the runway in mock protest, wielding megaphones and brandishing placards featuring slogans such as ‘Ladies First’, and ‘Women’s Rights Are More Than Alright’.

Are there finally grounds for suggesting that the fashion industry fully supports feminist ideals?

After all, the fashion realm is no stranger to being criticised by modern feminists. Naomi Wolf, for example, famously claimed that fashion oppresses women just as much as the ideals of motherhood, domesticity and chastity. Certainly, its demarcation of women as looking and dressing a particular way does seem to oppose feminism at its core. However, if one looks beyond the highly contentious issue of objectification, a tale of two halves becomes increasingly apparent.

Of the million people employed in the industry today, 71.6% are female, suggesting that fashion can, in fact, be praised for its role in financially and professionally empowering women. Moreover, of this percentage, many women actually hold positions at the highest levels of authority – a situation that is only improving by the introduction of initiatives such as LVMH’s EllesVMH programme. In this way, the industry can be seen as providing a variety of opportunities whereby women might achieve success, independence and, ultimately, respect.

Indeed, historically, fashion has always played an

important role in mirroring the debate on the changing position of women in society. Take the 1920s, for instance, when dress shapes became looser and hemlines shorter in order to reflect how women wanted to feel more physically liberated as a result of their new-found, post-war independence. During the 1960s too, fashion became a symbol of sorts for the growing Women’s Liberation movement when feminists burned their bras to protest their frustration over gender inequality. Finally, in the 1970s, fashion

fashion can, in fact, be seen to have aided the feminist cause in many respects can be seen to have acted as a denotation of women’s growing power in the workplace as trouser suits became ever more popular with the female masses.

Much more than simply assuming a role as a cultural mirror however, fashion can, in fact, be seen to have aided the feminist cause in many respects.

At the most basic level, the fashion industry provides women with the means to be empowered and confident by making them feel good about themselves. The notion of power dressing, for example, inaugurated by ‘the great unsung heroine of British feminism’, Margaret Thatcher, arguably instils an emboldened attitude in women, allowing them to succeed in what they set out to achieve. Superficiality aside, it is no secret that we feel at our best when we know that we are projecting an im-

age of ourselves to the world that we are satisfied with, and clothing plays an intrinsic part in this.

Moreover, although it would be anachronistic to describe her as a feminist, Coco Chanel can be seen to have used fashion to express her ‘desire to liberate women’. By appropriating traditionally male styles and fabrics and adapting them to the female form, Chanel not only changed the way women looked superficially but also how they looked at themselves. It is therefore fitting to have come full circle, with Karl picking up the feminist mantle ready for the next battle in the cause of gender equality.

Ultimately, the notion that fashion and feminism are incompatible is an assertion that is fundamentally incorrect. Granted, while objectification is clearly still a problem in the industry, it is diminishing as initiatives to tackle this issue gain momentum.

Moreover, whilst the extent to which the fashion industry encourages women to invest in their appearances poses a moral dilemma, at the same time it seems both naïve and patronising to imagine that the majority of young women in the 21st century are passive, unthinking victims of media manipulation.

It is unreasonable to assume that a woman cannot have an interest in fashion and feminism simultaneously. As Coco said, “Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening” – and it is constantly changing to reflect the bigger issues of the day so it can stand in support of, and not against, the feminist cause. In this light, need we say more than to be like Coco and use fashion to (ad)dress it!

Photograph courtesy of Vogue.co.uk.

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Anisha Mohan (dept. Tanya Birkett) - food@palatinate.org.uk

FOOD & DRINK

the barking baking company

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Hugo Brown writes about his solution to living out and the end of college catering great, easy recipes that just work.

Think of BarkingBaking.com as a hub for recipes by students, for students. I too am living on a budget and if it doesn’t taste good, I don’t publish it.

If you have something you think we should try - I am always on the look out for funky new stuff - please submit it using the link on the website and I’ll try it!

Get in touch: BarkingBaking@gmail.com. www.barkingbaking.com www.facebook.com/barkingbaking www.twitter.com/barkingbaking www.instagram.com/barkingbaking

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1 onion 1 clove of garlic 50g of butter (at least) 2 tbs of plain flour About 300ml of milk 200ml chicken stock Salt and pepper Small handful of parsley Shortcrust pastry (ready rolled)

Method: Fry the chicken in oil until it’s white. Add the chopped mushrooms. Allow them to cook. Remove it all from the pan and put to one side.

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ring The Barking Baking Company to your kitchen as Hugo shares his “nice and easy” pie recipe – perfect comfort food!

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#foodporn vs #crappymeal

loha! My name is Hugo Brown, I am in Trevs and study law. I run a food blog - www.barkingbaking.com - dedicated to easy recipes for students.

Barking Baking started because I realised at the end of last year that I would be living out and there would be no catering. I tried a few recipes by doing a cheeky Google search, but I came to realise the recipes were inconsistent - some work and some do not.

This can be a bit annoying when you end up wasting good ingredients on bad food. So I set about compiling

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ooking for a new porn site? Instagram is pretty good at getting juices flowing. As discussed in the last issue, food porn is rife and seemingly unstoppable. If you’ve got a beautiful plate of food and you haven’t shared it on social media (preferably on insta to @palatinatefood) then you are doing it completely wrong.

Although we don’t want to just conform, let’s change it up and also embrace something that is relevant and a reality for a lot of students. Abolish the mouth-watering, up close, filtered-to-perfection food pictures and replace them with what is often the ugly truth when it comes to dinner.

Our Instagram campaign moves towards getting rid of the stereotype that students cannot cook but also using the stereotype to our advantage because sometimes it is just necessary!

Lucy Hart is this issue’s #foodporn queen with this artfully arranged dinner of chorizo, thyme and white bean stew, while Abby Warwick’s gloopy ready meal leaves much to be desired (lets hope it’s not horse).

Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Pie This is my first ever pie and I thoroughly recommend it! It looks like a lot of ingredients but it’s actually not that bad - you probably have most of it lurking around somewhere. And don’t be put off by the pastry - just get ready rolled stuff and it’s easy!

Ingredients: • 3 chicken breasts • A large pack of mushrooms • 1 large leek

Fry the chopped onion and garlic in more oil. When it is soft, remove and pop in with the chicken.

Now we make our sauce: melt the butter in the saucepan and add the flour. Stir constantly until it turns into a paste. Add the milk gradually - stir all the time. Add the chicken stock. Stir. If it doesn’t look particularly thick, add more flour. Keep it simmering until it has thickened a bit. Add the chopped parsley (and season).

Pour this over the chicken.

Now fry up your leek in plenty of butter. Butter just makes it taste so much better. It takes a few minutes to do, so be patient with the leeks!

Pop everything in your pie dish - give it a good stir so that everything is covered nicely - and allow to cool in the fridge for about half an hour.

Whilst it is in the fridge, cut your pastry into a large circle so that it will cover your dish. You can cut shapes out and pop those on top to decorate it if you want!

Now cover the pie dish with the pastry and paint it with a lightly beaten egg - this makes it go a lovely golden brown. Makes sure you cut a few small slits in the top of the pastry so that steam/heat can escape.

Cook for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

WOOP you just made a pie!

Photograph and illustration by Hugo Brown

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Jonathan Peters (dept. Caroline France) - film@palatinate.org.uk

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breaking bad: one year on Hugo Camps-Harris looks back at the influential series

t’s now been over a year since Breaking Bad finally concluded with the dulcet tones of Badfinger’s ‘Baby Blue’ ringing out.Yet, despite the passage of time, the tale of Walter White’s descent into moral callousness is still regarded by many as the TV event of a generation. Yes, there have been shows with higher ratings. The new series of The Walking Dead has just seen to that by raking in a record 22.4 million viewers for its season premiere in America; an astonishing feat. Yes, there have been shows with greater critical acclaim. Breaking Bad’s 16 Emmys, the last of which was only awarded in August, are still dwarfed by The West Wing’s 26. But, although hardly lacking in both those areas, Breaking Bad was markedly distinct in another way that surpasses the individual successes of other shows: it departed our screens with an unparalleled cultural impact for a TV show of our age. Some shows can be great, however the legacy of Breaking Bad’s stratospheric rise to the top proves some can be a phenomenon.

Although it’s difficult to forget the show’s pulsating first few minutes as the soon-to-be ‘Heisenberg’ contemplates ending his story before it even really begins, it’s easy to forget now that Breaking Bad was often left fighting for its very survival. The 2007 Writer’s Guild of America striked immediately on the hampered production by limiting the first season’s number of episodes to only seven, and whilst the show did initially garner some positive attention, its late night TV slot always meant a mass audience was off the cards. Even more symptomatic of Breaking Bad’s then fragility was the fact that in the UK itself the show was dropped from

Preview: Better Call Saul

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rom the ashes of Breaking Bad rises Better Call Saul, the 2015 spin-off starring everyone’s favourite sleazy strip mall attorney.

Fans will most likely be watching in droves, although with not unfounded trepidation. As Hugo puts above, Breaking Bad seems to have turned into more of a franchise than a show standing wholly on its artistic merit, and Better Call Saul could be seen as an attempt to milk the cash cow while it’s still a hot property. Breaking Bad had a perfect five-season run, never dropping the ball (even when its protagonists fought to battle a fly), so why does this universe need to return to our

Channel 5 and FX respectively. Clearly these are not issues you would have expected a show, now facing greater problems concerning the suitability of its own toy range, to have had to confront.

So what fundamentally changed for Breaking Bad and where does the significance lie in the way that it did change?

Skipping to August 2013 and the start of Breaking Bad’s final mini-season, it had by then become very palpable that what had in fact fundamentally changed was the entrance of online streaming services into the mainstream consumer market and specifically to Breaking Bad: the emergence of Netflix. Cleverly offering a month’s free trial when signing up, a great new wave of people could now watch the show for the first time and this policy immediately paid dividends. In a way that resulted in Netflix and Breaking Bad becoming mutual beneficiaries of Breaking Bad’s original failure.

A convoluted cycle was now occurring whereby those who hadn’t already seen the show were suddenly being recommended it by their friends in such high numbers that, having consumed the show themselves in such strident ‘binge-watching’ fashion, they were in turn endorsing and discussing it with others to remain at all socially acceptable. With the number of Netflix subscribers skyrocketing, there were now the perfect conditions for a combined cultural storm where internet ‘binge-watching’ and Breaking Bad could symbiotically lay waste to anything that was preventing members of the public from already indulging in the hysteria of its own creation.

Was that last paragraph a tad over the top? With-

screens and run the risk diminishing returns?

Furthermore, Walter White had one of the greatest character arcs in TV history, with Bryan Cranston utterly convincing at every stage of his character’s development from unambitious chemistry teacher to deadly meth kingpin. It’s difficult to imagine Saul, a fun if far less three-dimensional character (at least by comparison) having any ‘one who knocks’ moments, unless the writers add traits that simply weren’t there in the original series.

However, it’s possible to be cautiously optimistic.

Spin-off shows aren’t by nature doomed to failure - just look at the likes of Frasier and Angel, bettering the achievements of their older siblings. It’s possible that with writer Vince Gilligan still fully attached to the show, we’ll have another classic on our hands.

out a doubt yes, but it nonetheless tries to illustrate that due to the unprecedented momentum the series picked up during its last season, everything about Breaking Bad, including the way it was watched, was suddenly absorbed into popular culture and sensationalised. But that isn’t to say all this publicity is necessarily always a good thing.

As long as ‘Los Pollos Hermanos’ shirts inundate our streets, new episodes of Better Call Saul get

it’s easy to forget now that Breaking Bad was often left fighting for its very survival pumped out and the press continue to stylise certain criminals as ‘London’s Walter White’, there is a very real danger that the heart of Breaking Bad could be consumed by its own hype, soon considered more of a franchise than an artistic achievement. This would be a tragedy when it’s so evident that its creator’s initial brief to turn ‘Mr Chips into Scarface’ was perhaps one of the most skilfully executed plots on TV. So whilst much of this article has focused on the fact Breaking Bad’s historical importance rests upon its cultural impact, in light of the TV revolution it helped initiate, it must be remembered that these factors were not what made the show great in itself. Instead I feel that a year on, the legacy of the Breaking Bad TV show should be shining through, even if this means the phenomenal element of Breaking Bad can’t be gliding over all in the process.

Images: AMC Better Call Saul will succeed if it has a different enough vibe to Breaking Bad. The show will lack the same risk and tension - after all, we know exactly where the character ends up - but if Bob Odenkirk’s comedic strengths are played up, then the show has a chance of winning over audiences.

It’s already off to a good start. After a relative drought of previews an official music video by country star Junior Brown was released recently, and it’s catchy as hell (and even quirkier than the Mexican ‘Heisenberg’ song from Breaking Bad’s second season). If the song is anything to go by, and the show even comes close to matching the brilliance of its predecessor, we have reason to be reassured.

By Jonathan Peters

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Amy Price - stage@palatinate.org.uk

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STAGE

lest we forget

Samantha Ball looks at theatre’s preoccupation with war, and the poignancy of war on stage

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rt makes us think, allows us to express emotion, forces us to remember and informs us of the experiences of others. Thus it is only natural for there to be a great focus on the theme of war in art, given its significant emotional subject matter. Theatre, as an art form, is a significant vehicle within this discussion, which is especially poignant in the centenary since World War One. Often theatre practitioners take a naturalistic approach to productions about war. This allows plays to mirror real life and real experiences. This reflection can powerfully inform the audience about issues of war in an emotive as well as factual sense. Theatre is uniquely able to do this, providing an emotional education without putting pressure on those who have been affected by war as, for example, interviews can.

“it can destroy the people who literally live down the road” Journey’s End, written by R.C Sherriff in 1928 for example, is a masterpiece that explores how ordinary men behave within the extraordinary backdrop of life in the trenches in the First World War. The plot focuses on Captain Stanhope’s company in the British trenches as they build up to facing a German attack. It examines how different character’s personalities deal with this situation - Hibbert lies about being ill in order to go home, Stanhope turns to alcohol and Osborne concentrates on acting as a father-figure to distract himself.

The naturalistic setting and constant dialogue between characters makes the gripping emotions vividly apparent to the audience, which forces them to connect with the characters. This makes the ending of the play all the more moving.

Another naturalistic production is Steve Gilroy’s Motherland. This is a verbatim piece based on the

words of women from the North East affected by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan taken in interview in 2007.The Castle Theatre Company staged this at the end of last month and their producer, George Rextrew, offered the following observations: “[…]it offers a truthful and honest perspective on war, and how it can destroy the lives of people who literally live down the road from us. It is a very stripped back production but therein lies its best quality - the words alone are enough […]”

My Boy Jack by David Haig, first performed in 2004, based on Kipling’s poem of the same name, is also relevant to this discussion. The play focuses on the Kipling family and their experience of having their son fight in the war.

Haig addresses how the family deal with the aftermath of the war and how their lives go on after Jack is declared missing, and it is eventually revealed that he was killed in action. The focus on family as well as war leaves the audience with inescapable empathy for the characters, which is heightened when the character of Rudyard Kipling recites his poem at the end of the play.

Of course, war is often addressed in theatre in a more abstract way. Issues relating to war are indisputably complex and so they are sometimes best-conveyed

ual art alone, since theatre immerses the audience in the theme by connecting with multiple senses.

The use of puppetry in the play adaption of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, by Nick Stafford, is an example of this. The play follows Albert and Joey (his horse) as Joey is sold to the cavalry and Albert joins the army during World War One. The animals are all puppets, and so the play is able to highlight a commonly overlooked aspect of war: its effect on animals.

This non-naturalistic approach not only informs the audience, but also enables the realism

of the emotion.

It is remarkable how quickly the audience forget the fact that the puppet animals are not real, causing intense bonding with the puppets as well as the human characters.

This is particularly evident in the scene where the horses are trapped in barbed wire, which is enhanced by the inventive use of lighting and sound to highlight the tension in certain parts of the play.

The original London production at the National also had the use of the Olivier

“to empathise, to learn and to remember.”

Theatre’s built-in drum revolve which allows the stage to rotate. This showed the puppets as if they were running, adding to the non-naturalistic yet realistic dichotomy.

Regardless of which approach is taken to express the theme of war in theatre, the most important issue is that it continues to be discussed and explored with contemporary audiences.

Through theatre we are able to empathise, learn and to remember. using unconventional methods. This method of communicating with the audience is a form of expression often unavailable or inaccessible in everyday life and is arguably more direct than other art forms, such as poetry or vis-

Photograph: Brinkhoff Mogenburg Illustration: Mariam Hayat

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Anastasia Symecko (dept. Will Throp) - music@palatinate.org.uk

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MUSIC

Interview: Andy Burrow Will Throp

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and breathe, and hopefully people pick up on it.

Do you find that the songs transform when you play them live?

You find that some songs are easier to replicate than others. Some songs take on a life of their own in a live situation, others stick more to the formula. It’s always fun to play songs live, and once you’ve been out on the road for a little bit, they change again. It’s fun! It’s inspiring to watch music change with different people playing it in different live scenarios.

I guess you get the energy from the audience as well?

Exactly. And different musicians play things differently as well. There are a lot of factors involved in why it becomes unique.

How do you find making your own music, as a solo artist, as opposed to being in a band like Razorlight, We Are Scientists etc?

I suppose it sounds obvious, but the fact that it’s only me makes it more personal on a creative level. There are great things about being in a band, but it’s also a wonderful experience to write and release your own music. To get the opportunity to do that and sing it to people is a really special thing.

After leaving mid-noughties indie rock behemoth Razorlight behind in 2009, Andy Burrows has carved out a formidable career for himself under a number of different guises.

From drumming with We Are Scientists to fronting I Am Arrows, Burrows’ relentless drive to create has rightly garnered praise from critics. This week, we caught up with the mild-mannered troubadour to chat about his new solo record, ‘Fall Together Again’ You wrote a lot of the album on the road while touring in Europe. How did that influence the sound of the record?

I suppose travel, and being away from family in general, is always an appropriate backdrop for writing because it throws up a lot of emotions. I don’t have any great formula, and I never really know why or where, as I guess it’s the same with everybody who writes why things work on certain days and not on others.

We were living in New York at the time that the album was written, and travelling a lot over in Europe to promote, so yes, there’s a lot of emotion flying around.

The actual recording process took place in a cabin at the foot of the mountains in Snowdonia, North Wales. Why did you choose to base yourself there over, say, a city setting?

It’s a bit of a change, making a record in a different way to anything I’d done before. I’d never done a residential kind of thing, never gone away with the band before, with all of us just being in one place together.

So yeah, it’s a new thing for me and it worked really well. It’s a good way of switching off for a little bit, to just concentrate on the music.

The album starts with ‘Derwen’, an instrumental track. It seems to work really well, setting up the mood for the album nicely. Why did you choose to start with the instrumental? It’s not something that’s too prominent in music these days.

I don’t know really. It just seemed to make sense to me. It sets the tone without any words to impair your judgement. As a listener, it’s quite nice to just get the sounds of where we were, the sound of the room and that sort of stuff. I mean, I could get super nerdy about it, but I just think it sets it up nicely.

And then it goes from there; the trademark big drums come rolling in… (*laughs*) Exactly!

On the subject of the album title, ‘Fall Together Again’, you’ve said that it seems to summarise the way in which the album came about. What did you mean by that?

Well it’s actually a lyric from a song by Steely Dan called, ‘Any Major Dude.’ The idea of ‘Fall Together Again’… I like the idea that, in a kind of calamitous way, a nice scenario can come out of a bit of a mild storm. Falling into place but not necessarily in a slick way.

Great stuff. You’re going out on tour at the end of the month. Looking forward to it?

Very much so! It’s always great fun to get out and play live. It’s a short run around the UK, just 4 dates (tour begins Oct 28th in Southampton) and then a few in Europe, with a view towards doing more in the New Year. I guess the plan is to let the record get out there

I saw you playing with I Am Arrows when you supported Muse at Wembley in 2010. I’ve never asked this to anyone before, but… what was it like playing Wembley Stadium?

We’d played there with Razorlight for various reasons, but it certainly was bizarre to be out there at the front singing! It was surreal, but in all honesty, that sums up the last ten years really. It’s been a continuation of strange events.

I can imagine. So what are your plans for 2015? Are you going to be concentrating on the solo record, or have you got plans for the other projects?

I’d like to think that the next eight to ten months, up to next summer, would mainly be about touring this record. It’s hard to know. I’ve always got a few things going on, so I suppose I never really know what might stick out. Certainly for the foreseeable future though, I’ll be putting most of my energy into this.

Andy Burrows’ new album, ‘Fall Together Again’ is out now

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Anastasia Symecko (dept. Will Throp) - music@palatinate.org.uk

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MUSIC

A Triumphant Return? sion of recording children’s voices on ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)’, Pink Floyd’s only number one single. Thus, his departure after the release of ‘The Final Cut’, marked by his notorious statement that Pink Floyd was “a spent force” caused consternation amongst many fans as they wondered if Pink Floyd would ever be able to recreate the magic that had captured so many listeners in the first place.

It seems as if a curse has befallen the band - as soon as a member is lauded a ‘creative genius’ said member invariably departs What had been forgotten, however, is that two of the other standout albums recorded by Pink Floyd (‘Dark Side of the Moon’, and ‘Wish You Were Here’) were those recorded collaboratively as a four piece between Mason, Gilmour, Waters, and Wright. Whilst Waters was credited with writing the entirety of the lyrics on these albums, much of the music – those progressive rock sounds to which Pink Floyd can attribute their status as pioneers of psychedelic music – was created by Wright and Gilmour. This means that the departure of Waters, whilst a daunting obstacle, was not insurmountable.

Since Waters’ departure, two albums have been

released by the band. The first, ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’, received mixed reviews, the main criticism being that without Waters’ insight the lyrics became ‘facile’, and that Gilmour was unable to recreate the philosophical magic that had dominated the lyrics of the previous albums. The second album, ‘The Division Bell’, was roundly condemned as sounding like a cheap copy of vintage Floyd.

Whilst Gilmour has argued that the band was trying to refocus its attention on the music after Waters’ heavy emphasis on lyrics, it remains to be seen whether Pink Floyd can recapture their genius, the same genius that inspired bands like Queen, Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins.

This is why I would argue the release of their new album this year is so important, as it will truly determine whether Pink Floyd can ever be considered ‘great’ without the contribution of Roger Waters.

Playlist: Top 10 David Thomas Cotter

Pink Floyd are well known for their concept albums which explore complex themes like conflict, mental illness and the unstoppable passing of time. However, they also know how to write a stand-out hit.

Palatinate takes a closer look at some of their best.

10 – Time

A dark manifestation of the moment when you realize you’re not going to stay young forever, Time is a quintessential Pink Floyd composition, easily recognised by its lengthy introductory passage of sounding alarms and chiming clocks.

9 – Mother

Noted for its varied use of time signatures, incorporating 5/8, 9/8 and 12/8 bars, Mother narrates the character Pink’s sense of alienation, born out of being raised by an overprotective single mother. Compositionally intriguing, Mother gradually expands its orchestration to include many diverse instruments including a reed organ.

8 – Hey You

Intense. Everything about this song is intense. The solo acoustic guitar entrance, the Another Brick In The Wall leitmotif, the screaming electric guitar solo, and the sonar-like sounds. Intense.

7 – Echoes

A masterpiece of epic proportions, at

nearly 24 minutes long, Echoes clads Pink Floyd’s 1960’s psychedelic beginnings with unparalleled musical talent, powerful lyrics, hypnotic sonic sounds, and screaming seagulls… just listen.

6 – Money

Pink Floyd songs aren’t always ‘easy listening’: the band’s first chart hit in the US, one of the best bass-lines ever, and the almost obligatory blues-style tenor saxophone solo.

5 – Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb conceptually contrasts memories of being feverishly ill as a child with feelings of nothingness as an adult, and in 2010 Guitarist magazine named Gilmour’s guitar tone in this song ‘the best ever’. You may recognise it from its radical disco re-arrangement by Scissor Sisters in 2004.

4 – Another Brick In The Wall (Pt.2)

Chart-wise, this is Pink Floyd’s most successful song, reaching number one in seventeen countries worldwide. A protest song against the state of schooling, it features a well-known bass solo, choir of singing schoolchildren, and Roger Waters’ signature scream.

3 – The Great Gig In The Sky

The Great Gig In The Sky began life as a simple organ instrumental punctuated by spoken Biblical passages, before the band opted to have a female vocal-

ist ‘wail’ over the music. Sessionsinger Clare Torry was enlisted, allowed to pretend she was an instrument, and the result is one of the best vocal solos of all time.

2 – Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here is considered by some to be the band’s signature song and encompasses conceptual leader, Roger Waters’, feelings of alienation and loss. The song features guitarist David Gilmour’s car radio, scat singing, and a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 4.

1 – Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Originally released as a nine-part, 26-minute suite, Shine is without doubt Pink Floyd’s most monumental work.

A tribute to former band member Syd Barrett, who was struggling through mental illness exacerbated by drug use, schizophrenia and insanity, Shine is the epitome of an epic piece.

pink floyd special

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ink Floyd are arguably one of the most successful rock bands of all time, having sold more than 250 million albums worldwide, and being regularly featured on lists of ‘top artists of all time,’ yet it seems as if a curse has befallen the band – as soon as a member is lauded a ‘creative genius’ said member invariably departs. We ask what impact this has had, and what it means for their upcoming album.

One can certainly hear the difference between ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ and Pink Floyd’s later albums, those recorded without Syd Barrett.

David Bowie cited Barrett as one of his defining influences, apparent in the space-age feel and abstract lyrics that feature far less prominently in the band’s later hits. Indeed, Pink Floyd did struggle to find its feet again after Barrett’s departure, with ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’ reviewed as “rather mediocre” by Rolling Stone; and ‘Ummagumma’, whilst receiving positive reception on release, was later criticized by both critics and band members.

However Pink Floyd quickly recovered with their albums released between 1970 and 1983 receiving critical acclaim and impressive global sales, elevating them to the status of global superstars.

Rock opera ‘The Wall’, is indisputably Roger Waters’ masterpiece, and what many would consider the peak of Pink Floyd’s career. Waters controlled almost every aspect of the album, from the music and lyrics, to the sound effects, to the defining deci-

Nicola Orrell

Pink Floyd’s new album, ‘The Endless River’, comes out November 10th

Images courtesy of Sonic PR and Parlophone Records

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Frances Marsh - visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk

V I S UA L A RT S

let there be light

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Polly Mackintosh is mesmerised and mystified by the Cerith Wyn Evan’s solo show at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery

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aving seen his work SUPERSTRUCTURE at the Hayward Gallery’s Light Show last year, Cerith Wyn Evans’s new exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens this summer immediately caught my eye.

He started out as a film-maker in the 1970s, but the Welsh Wyn Evans now creates sculptures with neon light which play on language, sound and movement.

A celebration of light, the small exhibition is a dynamic and refreshingly modern assembly of structures and words

A celebration of light, the small exhibition is a dynamic and refreshingly modern assembly of structures and words. The Serpentine Sackler offers the perfect location for Wyn Evans’s work; a relatively small space in which his powerful work cannot fail to stand out. The audience is clearly guided around the exhibition by the brightly illuminated words which snake around the outer room of the space. Though the meaning of these

Wyn Evans presents us with light in a big, bold way

words is unsurprisingly a little obscure, Wyn Evans makes a strong assertion of the relationship between light and modern communication.

This light and open outer room comfortably envelops the dark intimacy of the Bloomberg Rooms. The brick walls of these rooms at the centre of the gallery provide a familiar warmth which contrasts with the cold, clean light of Wyn Evans’s installations. The minimal white of his work really exaggerates the power of the light with which he plays, emphasised by the shiny marble of the floor which reflects back the light

“if people go away mystified, maybe it’s good”

Photographs: Cerith Wyn Evans/ White Cube and digieyes, Flickr

and creates an almost heavenly sensation as you walk upon it.

Perhaps what is most exciting and original about his work is the relationship Wyn Evans intimates between light and sound. In the inner Bloomberg rooms, a sculpture of transparent flutes is illuminated by light, reverberating in the small brick room with the sound which surrounds it. This creates a haunting murmur in the otherwise deadly silent gallery. My favourite piece was in the next room along. Here the grandeur and opulence of a coloured chandelier is directly contrasted with the industrial light bulb, which is repeated

the grandeur and opulence of a coloured chandelier is directly contrasted with the industrial light bulb and turned into a sculpture in its own right, suspended next to the chandelier. This also provokes questions of functionality, suggesting the irrelevance of ornamentation to the importance of light.

Wyn Evans presents us with light in a bold, big way. With little explanation to his work provided in the exhibition, his installations are open to interpretation. Yet the dying, flickering lights within the stark Serpentine Sackler Gallery are suggestive of a human existence - breathing, throbbing and pulsating. At a time when we are asking ourselves what can truly be classified as art, it is easy to question what Wyn Evans is actually contributing. His work may provide us with few conclusions but it certainly offers an exciting and innovative way of looking at light, a contribution in itself. It is perhaps Wyn Evans himself who puts it best - “if people go away mystified, maybe it’s good.”

Cerith Wyn Evans’s solo show at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London runs until 9th November serpentinegalleries.org

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Celeste Yeo - creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk

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C R EAT IV E W R IT I N G

The Sheep in the Green Grass Kathryn Orr Fields.

Before, Behind.

Now, Later.

And always.

Always.

The sheep in the green grass On the other side of the road Seem too close, when What I want is so far.

Illustration by Asher Klassen

In Transit Benedict Tan I knew not why I found myself bestirred To up and go and leave my native home, Perhaps a siren’s song became that lure, Enticing me to step on foreign loam.

For I do freeze amidst this alien chill, And with tied tongue I toil for words to speak This lais of loneliness of which I feel Compelled, that name I never knew to seek.

I cannot help but sense I do not fit, My limbs are numb, my mind is paralysed; I deign to find myself in a transit A pilgrim on his way to paradise.

Is this maybe the measure of all things That is in life the satisfaction kiss?

The founding of a land whereby I’m king, To think my future fate nothing amiss.

Or am I deemed to live in darkness dim Life a sphere I run round its selfish rim?

Storing troves of precious gem and gold Determined to be waste as Time grows old.

Illustration by Cecilia Villacis

Against Returning, and Away from the Sea Cecilia Villacis Babe when I found you fallen anew, Grown very little and skin still as soft As when I first bore you, I remembered how The sorry reeds of your basket fraying With kisses I repaired, So that by my touch the sinews replaiting, The basket and I, pitiful though it was, May carry you, babe, bobbing in time To your piercing cries Until they turned to whimpers and the slow breath of sleep.

To calm you again took little strength, And I even smiled to have you once more, sighing briefly in remembrance, But babe a little grown, why did you return?

Was the land unflattering, or did the soil burn?

Still I carried you towards a quieter shore, Far from the sea, to suffer no more.

Weltering, silent, drowning, alone, I catch you again, hands tied, feet worn.

Who’s done this to you?

The men on the shore, But River, this sadness I’d rather ignore.

Just take me away again, Off towards the sea, For once more is enough To unweary my feet.

So I wash from your skin those bloody stains And remnants of reed-soil plaster the pain.

You sleep with a smile That will last for a while, Then I and the reeds must depart from your strain.

But the sea is too rough for you, unhardened child, So rebuff dark thoughts as we make you remain, Undone and unconscious on the shore.

The tall buildings brought me in And I felt secure.

I looked up And the sky seemed far away.

As it should be.

No matter how much I strain my eyes I see only green.

The mountains in the distance Must be miles away.

And it scares me, For I am not used To the wide expanses.

The time has come For me to leave The fields behind.

How could I have known, then, The sight of them Fading fast behind me Would bring one day Almost a sadness?

Cobblestone roads.

The ubiquitous river.

Slopes worn With the invisible footprints Of generations of students.

And I too Follow their paths.

The sheep in the green grass On the other side of the road.

I find myself straying, Seeking solace.

And I realise That they too Have become a piece of my home.

Photograph by Celeste Yeo

And the smile is now guarded with worry, But still you sigh softly when you fall and assume That I’ll wrap your lost body And guide your cocoon, But babe, grown-up babe, Though we love faithfully, And will carry you towards a shore quietly And bind your ever worn feet, let it be That you’ve left me here lonely And forgot of the sea; That you’ve left me here empty But for water and reeds.

Illustration by Grace Armatage

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comic by Mariam Hayat