By Anna Zhila, artist, art and music critic The Unseen World of photographer Natalia Polomina There is a certain kind of art that does not announce itself. It is not born in the bustling art capitals of the world, nor is it concerned with the loud, often cynical, conversation of the contemporary art market. It…

By Anna Zhila There is a moment at the 2005 Academy Awards that serves as a perfect, miniature origin story for Taika Waititi. His short film, Two Cars, One Night, is nominated. As the nominees in his category are read out, the camera cuts to each hopeful, anxious face. But Waititi is not anxious. He is…

By Anna Zhila At first glance, the pairing seems unlikely. A Catalan architect whose buildings erupt from the earth like living organisms; a Russian mystic who sought to paint the sound of the universe; and a Swiss-German draughtsman who saw his work as the act of "taking a line for a walk." Antoni Gaudí, Wassily…

By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and film critic The Terrible Weight of a Soul: On The Devil's Bath There is a certain kind of cinema that does not seek to entertain. It seeks to bear witness. The new film from the Austrian directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, The Devil’s Bath, is a staggering and deeply unsettling example…

By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and theatre critic There is a strange, satisfying symmetry to the London stage this August. As the summer heat begins to wane, a series of theatrical pairings has emerged, two-handers and biopics that place complex, often combustible, relationships under the microscope. From the imagined rivalry of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the…

By Yulia Tulegenova There is a strange beauty in exhaustion. Not the visceral, aching fatigue born of physical labour, but its aesthetic cousin: the curated weariness that speaks of late nights, emotional intensity, and a certain romantic detachment from the world. For generations, we have fought a quiet war against tired eyes, arming ourselves with…

Her first screen role, as Reese in Chloe Wallace's Mala influencia, and why an unpolished, quiet performance holds a film about first love and adolescence together.

By Yulia Tulegenova, artist and film critic The Fearless Youth of Georgina Amorós There is a certain kind of actor who seems to arrive on our screens with a quiet, almost unnerving, sense of purpose. They are not defined by a single genre, a single role, or a single look. They are shapeshifters, artists who…

By Anna Zhila, art and music critic The Quiet Center of Martín Urrutia There is a particular kind of vertigo that comes with sudden, intense public recognition. It is the feeling of being in a state of creative effervescence, a moment where your personal and professional lives are being forged in the white-hot glare of…

Susana Ventura, the Barcelona songwriter known as Suu, is twenty-two. Her third album Karaoke sets breakups and toxic relationships to bright early-2000s pop-rock, deliberately.

By Anna Zhila A countdown clock is a promise of a controlled explosion. For days, the one on Taylor Swift’s website did its silent, relentless work, winding the spring of global anticipation. When it reached zero, the detonation was not a bang, but a quiet click: the clasp of a briefcase. On her boyfriend’s podcast,…

By Anna Zhila, artist and art critic We have a habit of treating art as a form of decoration. We see it as a beautiful, profound, or challenging commentary on the human condition. It is something we hang on walls, place in public squares, or admire in the hushed halls of a gallery. It is,…

DJ, film director, musician and founder of a production company. Why Zoé Lawrence's refusal to pick a lane is the point, and what happens in the space between categories.

By Anna Zhila, art and music critic The Cartography of a Worldly Sound In our increasingly borderless world, a new kind of artist is emerging. They are not defined by a single place, a single culture, or a single sound. Their identity is a fluid, dynamic thing, a map drawn from a multitude of sources.…

At seventeen he already has an International Emmy, Disney blockbusters and prestige television behind him. On his turn in the A24 horror film Bring Her Back.