The health of the world’s oceans is under threat. But the seas can be part of a visionary plan to address climate change and create a more sustainable economy. Andrew Saunders reports on the new science around ocean carbon capture

Photography by Matt Sharp

The power of plants to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow is well understood as a vital tool in the global battle against climate change. But which of the planet’s myriad natural environments does it best? Tropical rainforest? African Savannah? Scottish peat bogs? None of the above – in fact the most carbon-rich ecosystem in the world is not to be found on land at all but in the ocean. Mangrove swamps, such as those found dotted around the coastlines of Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria for example, are the unsung heroes of carbon storage, locking up no less than ten times as much carbon per kilometre square in their branches, roots and soils than even the densest forest.

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Together with other coastal ecosystems, including sea-grass meadows, tidal marshlands and coral reefs, these so-called ‘blue carbon’ resources highlight that the oceans play a much more prominent role in limiting global warming than has been generally recognised.

“Building the ocean’s resilience to change and helping to rebuild marine-species abundance and diversity are not as fully appreciated as they should be as crucial tools in combating climate change, but there is more and more evidence that blue carbon plays a critical role in maintaining the health of our biosphere,” says Karen Sack, chief executive of Ocean Unite, an international network of experts in the science and ecology of the oceans.

Covering some 70 per cent of the planet’s surface, the oceans are effectively a huge carbon sink which has already absorbed around a third of the excess carbon that has been put into the atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial era. And more than 50 per cent of the carbon in the ocean is blue carbon, despite the fact that such environments account for only two per cent of the total ocean area. Protecting and enhancing them is at least as important as preserving forests, planting trees and rewilding on land, says Sack. “Mangroves, sea-grass beds, fish and marine mammals play a huge role in sequestering and storing carbon. By protecting and restoring these crucial habitats and species, more carbon will be sequestered and stored, resulting in a healthier planet, which is better for us all.”

Rock pools in Jersey

The carbon capture and storage potential of healthy oceans is not limited to coastal blue carbon zones alone, however. Other proposals for boosting the potential carbon sequestering of the world’s seas include encouraging kelp forests – essentially huge seaweed farms – and even microscopic algae called phytoplankton to extract carbon from the atmosphere as they grow.

Such initiatives could not only help climate change but also present new and potentially lucrative opportunities for business and investors, says Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland and a member of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The panel’s landmark 2020 report, Ocean Solutions That Benefit People, Nature and the Economy, found that a truly sustainable ocean economy could contribute around a fifth of the total carbon reduction required to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement target of a maximum two degrees of climate warming.

Read more: LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai on Effective Climate Action

For example, some phytoplankton species can be a source of valuable low or even zero-carbon biofuels and other industrial products. “Some of my colleagues here in Queensland are working on this. Phytoplankton grow very quickly and they can be processed to produce biofuels and high-value boutique chemicals. It’s potentially very interesting but it still has to be proved at an industrial scale.”

The ocean economy could also help feed the world more sustainably – a study by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies found that each kilo of fish landed in the US requires the emission of just 1.6kg of carbon dioxide, compared with between 50kg and 750kg for a kilo of beef produced on land. And if it can be done sustainably, large-scale ocean aquaculture has the potential added benefit of helping to protect and restore many wild-fish stocks threatened by over-fishing. “Well over half the world’s fisheries are in trouble,” says Hoegh-Guldberg, “because they have been fished down to well below sustainable levels.”

Rethinking the way we catch fish, so that sustainable aquaculture in the oceans becomes more equivalent to sustainable agriculture on land, could help stressed wild fisheries recover, he adds. “We are sophisticated farmers on land but we still have a basically Neolithic culture when it comes to fisheries.”

Creating such a climate-positive ocean economy will require a shift in the mindset of business in general and finance in particular to the point where the environmental impact of commercial activity is given equal weight to considerations of profit and loss, says Ocean Unite’s Sack. “Instead of viewing nature as an unaccounted externality that is not valued, the finance and business community more broadly needs to recognise its value, including the intrinsic value of biodiversity, and account for it. It can then take tried and tested financial products and put them to work with nature to build resilience and deliver bankable returns.”

Matt Sharp visited the Maldives in 2019 (above) where he recorded the extent of the pollution on the beaches

Stressing the urgency, she continues, “We’re at an ‘all hands on deck’ moment. By bringing together our collective knowledge and strengths, we can tackle hazards and vulnerabilities, build resilience and adapt to change at speed and at scale. But we have to have public and private sector financing to do that and partner across sectors to spur the type of innovative marketplace that is needed.”

So, nature and profit can co-exist in a sustainable and carbon-sequestering ocean economy. But what about technological solutions? As far back as the 1970s, Italian physicist Cesare Marchetti was the first to suggest injecting CO₂ directly into the Mediterranean to ameliorate global warming, and since then the oceans have been seen as part of a more tech-led – and more controversial – approach. Subsequent refinements of Marchetti’s original idea include pumping CO₂ captured from industrial plants into the sediment layer on the deep ocean floor. The pressure at such depth would liquefy the carbon dioxide, helping – in theory anyway – to keep it safely locked up, miles down in the mud.

Read more: Markus Müller on the Importance of Global Sustainability Standards

Even set against the current scale of the climate crisis, this looks like last-ditch stuff, says Professor Stuart Haszeldine of the School of GeoSciences at Edinburgh University. “I would much prefer that we didn’t have to: it would be a last-resort type of measure, if we haven’t managed to re-capture our emissions in any other way.”

But all the same, less risky technological solutions may well have a place – and the ocean can be part of that, too. Haszeldine and his colleagues at Edinburgh have come up with an alternative plan that could see the ocean surface turned into a kind of giant mirror to reduce the heating effect of the sun. Autonomous, computer-controlled ships would suck up sea water and spray it into the air as fine droplets, forming a layer of mist to reflect sunlight and cool the waters beneath. “We should have started reducing our carbon dioxide emissions 30 years ago,” he says. “This would be a way of cooling the ocean quickly, to reduce the effects of hurricanes [also caused by rising sea temperatures] and of helping to refreeze the melting arctic ice.” The group is currently looking for funding for a trial project to turn its innovative idea into reality. “We could build a pilot boat for a few million, and if it works then building 300 of those to delay the climate problem is well within the capacity of the global shipbuilding industry.”

Spotted eagle rays in the seas around the islands in the Maldives

The ocean surface could also be a platform for renewable power generation, thanks to the developing technology of floating wind and solar farms, says Hoegh-Guldberg. “Our report concludes that there is enormous potential there, and it is both technologically feasible and acceptable to the public.”

So while the climate clock is ticking ever more loudly, there are grounds to be cautiously optimistic that an alliance between science, government and business will yet provide the framework, the finance and the innovative ideas required to keep global warming within just about tolerable limits, and that oceanic carbon capture and storage will play its full part in the process. In Hoegh-Guldberg’s view, “Government needs to set the rules to encourage science to define the problems and the solutions, but then it should be sitting back as business gets involved.”

Hoegh-Guldberg also warns that if we continue as we are, we will end up with a world that is three to four degrees warmer than the pre-industrial era. “So, it doesn’t look too good as it stands now. But humans are very resourceful and there are lots of opportunities. I think we will keep to under two degrees, though not by a lot. Transitions tend to happen very slowly at first; you have to push and push until you get to the inflection point. Then suddenly you’re rolling downhill on the other side.”

Matt Sharp was awarded the Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year in 2020. He studied marine biology and has travelled and worked around the world, documenting marine life.

This article was originally published in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

Although Jeff Koons has had a profound impact on contemporary art and remains one of the world’s most influential artists, recent data supports a strong decline in his market, reflecting the tastes of a new generation of art collections and wider cultural shifts. Sophie Neuendorf reports

“I love the gallery, the arena of representation. It’s a commercial world, and morality is based generally around economics, and that’s taking place in the art gallery,” Jeff Koons

The above quote perfectly sums up the ethos and reputation of Jeff Koons. Love him or hate him, Koons has shaped contemporary art in profound ways over the course of the past few decades. One of the reasons for this is that his work is globally recognisable and relatable – you don’t need to have studied art history to understand where he’s coming from although if you have there are deeper layers to be found. In a sense, he bridges the gap between high and low culture.

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Koons rose to fame in the 1980s, developing iconic works such as Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988), the Made in Heaven (1990–1991) series, and Puppy (1992), which has been installed in Sydney Harbour, Bilbao, the Palace of Versailles, and Paris. While he’s most closely associated with his brightly coloured, shiny, oversized sculptures of kitschy souvenirs, toys, and ornaments (see his Celebration (1994–2011) series), Koons continues to seek new and surprising outlets for his creativity. In 2017, he teamed up with the luxury brand Louis Vuitton to produce an edition of bags printed with iconic European paintings, and more recently, he teamed up with high-street brand UNIQLO to create a line T-shirts and hoodies printed with some of most famous sculptures.

Courtesy of artnet

In 2019, his fame seemed to reach an all time high: Rabbit sold for a record-breaking $91.1 million at Christie’s auction house, making him the most expensive living artist. However, according to the artnet Price database, that single work accounted for the lion’s share of the artist’s $100 million (approx.) auction total that year. In fact, since peaking at more than $150 million in 2014, the artist’s  overall auction volume has been slowly trending downward. In 2020, it was down to less than $3 million. While the pandemic undoubtedly played a role in the decrease of sales and things have picked up slightly since (to about $36 million to date) it’s still a far reach from earlier years. More worryingly, 48 (20%) of the 239 Koons lots offered this year at auction have failed to sell entirely.

Read our interview with Jeff Koons from the Autumn/Winter issue

Over the past few years, major cultural shifts in the art world and beyond have contributed to the rather rapid depreciation of the Koons market. First and foremost, there has been a generational shift, with a new group of young collectors becoming the driving force behind the rise of Ultra Contemporary artists and a wider change in tastes. Peers of the BLM, MeToo, and climate change era, these young collectors are looking for more depth and meaning than Koons’ shiny kitsch seems able to offer. Quite possibly, the extravagant prices and controversial subject-matter (namely Koons’ Made in Heaven series which featured explicit images of his former wife, porn star Ilona Staller) have, ultimately, overshadowed his career, but this change can also be seen as a natural evolution. In fact, the only category in art that is more or less immune to changes in taste are the ultimate “trophies” that are so exceptional and rare in quality that anyone able or prepared to spend more than $100 million on a single artwork cannot afford not to go after them, if and when such works become available. Nearly everything else is and always will be affected by the evolution of culture.

Courtesy of artnet

Additionally, and importantly, the health crisis of the past two years has had a profound impact on not only the art market, but also on the popularity of the hyped pre-pandemic artists. Internationally recognisable artists such as Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami have also seen a depreciation in their average prices at auction, indicating a decline in their popularity. Perhaps, this is because these figures are seen to be representative of a pre-pandemic era, an era which was more superficial and frothy than today’s.

Read more: The Best Art Exhibitions to See in January

Koons currently ranks as number 57 in artnet’s list of the top 300 most popular artists, but if the market is anything to go by, he’s in danger of slipping off it altogether. “For me, at a certain point it became so much about the money that I couldn’t look at a shiny outdoor [Koons] sculpture without thinking about dollar signs,” commented American art advisor and specialist in modern and contemporary art Lisa Schiff. “When it becomes too much about the money, it’s just not interesting. I feel like where he started is somewhere very different from where he went.”

Now, Koons’ new dealers at Pace Gallery (the gallery announced exclusive representation of the artist in April after he left Gagosian and David Zwirner) are faced with the daunting task of rekindling his market. His latest works –  stainless steel replicas of porcelain figurines – are set to appear in a solo show at Pace New York in late 2023 but only time will tell if the market can be swayed once more in his favour.

Sophie Neuendorf is Vice-President at artnet. Find out more: artnet.com

Painting by Christopher Cheung. Displayed at Spectrosynthesis II, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Patrick Sun is pushing forward a movement very close to his heart through his foundation Sunpride, which seeks to give equal opportunities to LGBTQ+ artists in Asia. Here, Sun speaks to Samantha Welsh about what his foundation has done for him personally and the wider impacts of his projects

Patrick Sun, Founder of Sunpride

LUX: You grew up in Hong Kong, in a traditional family, when sex discrimination laws were undergoing limited amendment (HK 1991). When did you realise that the problem was with society?
Patrick Sun: Coming out is never easy and it was especially daunting in the 80’s when society was hostile and gays were seen as perverts.  My mother insisted that I seek help from a psychiatrist, and I obliged, not because I thought there was anything wrong with me medically or psychologically, but I needed the doctor to tell her that I am “normal”.  Soon after that I participated in a panel discussion with legislators who sought to decriminalise homosexuality in Hong Kong and that was when I realised that rather than resigning ourselves to adversity, we can try to do something to change society.

LUX: Suggesting the hidden, the forbidden, taboo; did your curiosity inform your early collecting?
Patrick Sun: My earliest collection was traditional Chinese paintings.  While I had no intention to collect such works with a gay theme, one of my favourite paintings depicted two boys sharing a stolen watermelon which evoked to me a forbidden love. I can draw parallels to LGBTQ artists who do not specifically depict a gay theme in their work, yet somehow who you are and what you can reveal can be found if we look in the right place.

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LUX: Inequality, invisibility, social exclusion and marginalisation; many artists’ works show a longing to belong, through juxtaposing what is with what is not there. Which of your works exhibited have had the most impact?
Patrick Sun: One of my favourite works from our exhibition in Bangkok was Arin Runjang’s “Welcome To My World: Tee”, which takes us into a large dark room with 5 giant screens showing different views of a naked transgender person. The work questions one’s perception of what makes a “perfect woman”, as well as one’s reaction when confronted with something unfamiliar or “abnormal”.  It addresses all the issues you mentioned such as invisibility, social exclusion, marginalisation and inequality in one powerful installation.

Installation by Jun-Jieh Wang. Displayed at Spectrosynthesis, MOCA Taipei

LUX: Through Sunpride, you are renowned for your ground-breaking super-scaled public exhibitions, the biggest in Asia.  What is your thinking here?
Patrick Sun: Sunpride Foundation hosts large-scale exhibitions with an LGBTQ theme to promote awareness and respect of our community in Asia.  We anchor our events at public institutions because they provide a platform to reach out to the general public.  Like movies and novels, we see art as a more equanimous way of communication and strive to promote people’s understanding and acceptance of a more diverse society.

LUX: What is the symbolism behind Spectrosynthesis, and what was the ambition for the Taipei, Bangkok  and the recent Hong Kong exhibitions?
Patrick Sun: Spectrosynthesis is composed from two words – spectrum which represents diversity as in colours of the rainbow, and photosynthesis which is how plants convert solar energy into nourishment.  We believe if one source of energy can bring life to all living creatures, then diversity could lead to a better and healthier society.
Taipei and Bangkok were our first two exhibitions and we are happy to see that they were both well received by the art circle and general public.  We hope to bring similar exhibitions to other parts of Asia where the voice of the LGBTQ community need to be heard.

When Sunpride presented our first exhibition there was some skepticism about the possibility of bringing Spectrosynthesis back to my home town, Hong Kong. I am particularly proud to see the materialisation of a major exhibition at Tai Kwun in 2023.

Installation by HOU, Chun-Ming. Displayed at Spectrosynthesis, MOCA Taipei

LUX: Why not shine a light on the SE Asian countries which criminalise LGBTQ+ people, such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia? Surely in Taiwan and Thailand there have been achievements in equality and diversity?
Patrick Sun: One of the criticisms we received from our shows in Taipei and Bangkok is “are we preaching to the converted?”  My answer is, while both places have better achievements in equality and diversity, there are still discrimination and inequities that need to be addressed.  Our show in Taipei happened at the time when same-sex marriage created huge controversy, and the one in Bangkok was presented when a new bill on civil partnership was discussed at the Justice Ministry.  While it may seem impossible now to host such a show in countries like the ones you mentioned, I am optimistic that the world is changing in the right direction with regard to equality and diversity.  A good example is India – removal of penal code 377 and decriminalisation of homosexual acts was only accomplished in 2018 and the scene has flourished in leaps and bounds.

Installation by Sornchai Phongsa. Displayed at Spectrosynthesis II, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

LUX: How significant are the partnerships with MOCA, BACC and recent Tai Kwun?
Patrick Sun: Our partnerships with MOCA Taipei and BACC were paramount in importance.  They helped pave the way for our future exhibitions, not just in showing what an LGBTQ-themed exhibition is, but also allaying fears of what we are not.  It is not a show built on homo-erotica, nor is it confrontational or offensive.  It has a wide array of themes and mediums, and provides platforms for communication between the gay community and the general public.

The recent collaboration with Tai Kwun is equally if not more significant. I believe the exhibition is important not only to the LGBTQ+ community but to everyone in showing how Hong Kong remains a diverse and inclusive society.

Read more: Umberta Beretta on fund-raising for the arts

LUX: Does your activism drive you to work with institutions beyond SE Asia?
Patrick Sun: We have been approached by institutions in Europe and America to bring our show there.  We declined because our focus remains in Asia, where exhibition like ours is more direly needed.  However, we have made friends with many art professionals including curators from art institutions in other parts of the world who have formed an invaluable network of information with Sunpride Foundation.

Photo by Ren Hang. Displayed at Spectrosynthesis II, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

LUX: How has the public-private partnership guided your process in how to buy and what to show?
Patrick Sun: Sunpride Foundation collects with an aim to exhibit.  Whilst ultimately it is the curators’ decision on what to present, having a large sample in our collection helps them build the exhibition, with additional works to borrow or commission to help put together a coherent show.  When we look at a work, the first question is always “how would it work in an LGBTQ-themed exhibition?” This question helps us set aside personal preferences and think about logistic issues such as medium, transportation, storage etc.

LUX: If a member of the public asks you how they can support LGBTQ+ rights, how do you answer them?
Patrick Sun: Speak Up: if you hear something offensive about gay people, tell them it is not ok. Words can hurt and when you speak up, you let people know those words are not acceptable and prevents similar slandering or mockery in future. Another way would be – allow me to do a bit of promotion here – come see one of our exhibitions, or read up on them, to see for yourself that the LGBTQ community is perhaps just as normal and talented as the rest.

Find out more: sunpride.hk

Rachel Jones, SMIIILLLLEEEE, 2021. Oil pastel, oil stick on canvas. Photo by Eva Herzog. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery

In our new online monthly series, LUX’s editors, contributors, and friends pick their must-see exhibitions from around the globe

Sophie Neuendorf, Vice President of artnet

Last year, Saint Laurent started their cultural program, showing a selection of artists at exciting locations, such as at the beach during Art Basel Miami Beach (which you can read more about in my diary from the fair). They also mount exhibitions at their Rive Droite location in Paris, which has been conceived to showcase a selection of products from the Saint Laurent collection alongside works by emerging and established artists. This month, they’re showing Sho Shibuya‘s ethereal solar paintings, following the artist’s debut in Miami.

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Another must-see show is The Magritte machine at Thyssen Museum Madrid (closing on 30 January). As Sotheby’s is betting big on Magritte with a $60 Million consignment for their forthcoming London auction, this exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to discover more about the surrealist Belgian artist.

René Magritte Tentative de l’impossible 1928. Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota © René Magritte, VEGAP, Madrid, 2021

Then, at the end of this month, Buckingham Palace will reveal seven portraits of Holocaust survivors, which were commissioned by Prince Charles as a gesture of tribute to the ageing generation. The artists participating in the project include the most expensive living female artist Jenny Saville, BP Portrait award-winner Clara Drummond, original member of the Young British Artists Stuart Pearson Wright, and painters Paul Benney, Peter Kuhfeld, Massimiliano Pironti, and Ishbel Myerscough. The paintings will be displayed in the Queen’s Gallery starting January 27 in an exhibition called Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust.

Idris Khan, Artist

Perhaps rather predictably, my recommended exhibition for this month is my wife, Annie Morris’s show When a Happy Thing Falls at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It’s her first UK solo museum exhibition and includes her sculptures as well as drawings and a tapestry. The show ends on 6 February so it’s your last chance to see it!

Read more: In the studio with Idris Khan

Annie Morris, Stack 9 Ultramarine Blue, 2021. Photo © Jonty Wilde. Courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Lawrence Van Hagen, Founder of LVH Art Advisory & Curator of the ‘What’s Up’ exhibitions

Rachel Jones’ solo exhibition SMIIILLLLEEEE at Thaddaeus Ropac, London (on until 5 February) has deservedly received a lot of media attention. The 30-year-old Essex-based artist is already a distinctive voice in the art world (she was one of the youngest artists to participate in the Hayward Gallery’s acclaimed exhibition Mixing It Up) and one of the most exciting emerging artists that I have personally come across, and acquired in recent years.

Rachel Jones in her studio. Photo by Adama Jalloh

As the title suggests, the exhibition references the artist’s ongoing obsession with mouths and specifically, teeth. In the works, she combines figuration and abstraction to reflect on teeth as a form of cultural expression in Black communities. The mouth also seems to be a metaphor for the world within us, our emotional landscape and the gate to our soul as we smile, eat, sing, scream, kiss… The clearest example in this show is a work that’s only 30cm high but more than 2-metres wide. It pictures a set of teeth and the canvas is trimmed at the bottom to follow the uneven shape of the molars and incisors. Rachel also has a solo show coming up at Chisenhale Gallery (opening 12 March) – another date for the diary!

Read more: Shiny Surfaces, Lawsuits & Pink Inflatable Rabbits: Jeff Koons

Millie Walton, LUX’s Art & Digital Editor

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong in the context of her solo exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in Mayfair. We chatted at length about her process (which is completely spontaneous in the sense that she never plans her compositions) and her participation in the anti-authoritarian Situationist International (SI) group. Although the group wasn’t an artistic movement, de Jong was greatly inspired by its revolutionary spirit which can be felt in her vibrant colour palette and fluid forms that seem to writhe on the canvas. She has been making work for over six decades, but it isn’t until now that she’s beginning to finally garner international recognition.

Jacqueline de Jong, Untitled (Upstairs-Downstairs), 1986

This month, she has two major solo exhibitions including a museum survey entitled The Ultimate Kiss, which was inaugurated by WIELS, Brussels, in 2021 and is currently on show at MOSTYN, Wales (until 6 February) as well as another solo exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (21 January to 12 March 2022) which includes a series of drawings related to her Upstairs-Downstairs paintings from the mid 1980s. I’m hoping I’ll get to see both!

Januario Jano, Untitled (M0010), 2021.

I also recommend stopping by Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery’s Wandsworth space to see Angolan artist Januario Jano’s vibrant, thoughtful show Imbambas: Unsettled Feelings of Object & Self (on until 5 February). Jano takes the Kimbundu term imbambas (which refers to things such as furniture and luggage that have an intrinsic and uncanny relationship to the body and self) as his departing point through which to explore the role of the object in the construction and reinforcement of cultural identity. The exhibition features a wide range of mixed-media works, incorporating textiles, photography and found objects.

Iran Issa-Khan

Born in Tehran, Iran Issa-Khan moved to New York in the 1970’s, and became one of the world’s most celebrated fashion photographers and a favourite of celebrities and political figures during the following two decades. Here, Iran speaks to her friend and LUX’s Chief Contributing Editor, Maryam Eisler, about widening her focus from the beauty of the human form to exploring the majestic scale of the natural world. The artist now resides in Miami where she has been working on her Nature series for the past twenty years.

Maryam Eisler: What occupies your mind these days, Iran, creatively speaking?
Iran Issa-Khan: Well, I am working on my book which is going to be about fifty years of fashion and personalities. I am trying to get that off the ground by next year.

Maryam Eisler: You have had a fascinating career. On the one hand, people, in particular celebrities, have played a big role in your oeuvre, and on the other hand, you have had this incredibly beautiful dance with nature and its zen moments.
Iran Issa-Khan: Yes. In a way, if you look at my magazine covers and the people I have shot, nature’s beauty is always present, and I enjoy celebrating it with my lens. To me that is very important and you know, being from the Middle East, I am used to being surrounded by beauty so, this is what has carried me throughout life, in this country included [The United States].

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I stopped shooting fashion, in the nineties when my make-up artist died of old age, and I moved to Miami. I left New York, and an artist friend of mine, asked me to shoot some black and whites of nature. I had never done that before, but suddenly I started looking at it with a new perspective, as if earth was opening up to me in such a new and beautiful way. I thought to myself, I have to capture it, because no human being can be that perfect. I just used my eye, my sense of aesthetics and all the lessons that I had learned while shooting fashion and people and put it all towards something that nobody had necessarily paid much attention to: a plant, a flower, even a small shell. Some of my shells are minuscule, but I blow them up to five by ten feet. So, for me, nature takes on a whole new meaning in terms of its grand beauty but also in terms of its emotive connection to me, personally. There is purity. Everything is so clean, so ordered, so pleasing to one’s eye and to one’s soul.

Harper’s Bazaar Covers by Iran Issa Khan

Maryam Eisler: Stepping back in time, what led you to photography in the first instance? When did your journey start?
Iran Issa -Khan: We are talking about the late seventies when we left Iran with the Shah. I hadn’t worked a day in my life and somehow a friend of mine who worked at The New York Times said “Why don’t you become a photographer?” I said, “What do I know about photography?” She said, “Well you love the arts, why don’t we get you a teacher?” So, I hired William Minor Jr, a very well-known photographer and I worked with him for a whole year and all of a sudden, I learned how to process print, and everything else about photography. I realised this was going to be the love of my life because I could capture meaningful moments and shoot them. I built it up and then I went to Harper’s Bazaar and I said “I want to do some covers for you. I am a refugee and I am stuck here and have to work” They said “Yes, but you know a lot of personalities all over the world, so why don’t you do a year of personalities and if you’re good at that, we’ll let you do covers.” And so I did personalities… Carolina Herrera, Nancy Reagan, Diane von Furstenberg, Bill Blass, Rufino Tamayo, the Ferragamo family …all the people that I knew. Somehow, because of my upbringing and the way we had travelled all of our lives, I felt comfortable walking into these homes and telling people what to do. After a year, they said “Okay, you are good enough to do covers.”

My first cover was of Paloma Picasso and she loved it. She loved the pictures so much so that she hired me to do all her ad campaigns for twenty five to thirty years. So, we did that and then in between I got all the top models. Somehow, I got there by sheer belief in myself.

Oscar de la Renta photographed by Iran Issa Khan. Courtesy of Iran Issa-Khan

Maryam Eisler: What is your most important life lesson?
Iran Issa -Khan: It is very difficult for me to explain the life we led back home in Iran. The connections we made both at home and through our travels… It was a different world; you were educated twenty-four hours a day and what I learned most importantly from my mother was to be good to those who work for you, because they can’t talk back at you. It raises your bar and makes you a stronger person. So that is what I did all my life and during my career as a photographer too. Additionally, my whole life has been about connecting people together. With that, I too became stronger, with a voice to be heard.

Courtesy of Iran Issa-Khan

Maryam Eisler: Tell me about one of your most memorable and most cherished, social moments.
Iran Issa-Khan: I think meeting Zaha Hadid was one of the best moments of my life. First of all, she came from Iraq and I come from Iran so we connected right away on those terms. It was instant love between us but she had to be tougher than me. She not only wrote a forward in my book but she pushed me in my career and bought my work. She had it in her bedroom in London, and said to me “You and I have a lot in common because we both come from countries that have constant beauty everywhere …in nature, in architecture, in people, in everything!’. So, we had this connection which was deep and strong. I think she did a lot for me and my work. She made me see things in a way that I hadn’t seen before. I would come and sit and we would talk for hours, sharing stories. In Miami, we spent a lot of time together, having fun and laughing, so she relaxed and became herself. I would say that she is one of the few people that has really touched me in a very deep and meaningful way, teaching me all along to be better every day and believe in myself.

Iran Issa-Khan’s ‘Forces of Nature’ exhibition curated by Natalie Clifford and Space Gallery St Barth currently on display at the Musee de Wall House in St Barth

Maryam Eisler: If you were to give any advice to a young, female photographer, who is just starting in her career, what would you tell her? And I am emphasising ‘her’.
Iran Issa-Khan: Good, because I really believe in helping women get ahead because women have always played second fiddle and it is not fair because they also have to be mothers, wives, best friends. They have empathy, they have love, they have care. But they can also take a picture and make it beautiful. With their art, they can make you cry, they can also make you laugh, that is their power. To bring children into the world and raise them is a lot of work, so they can do anything they set their minds to. I want them to stick to their passion, their career, believe in themselves, go for it and don’t let anything or anyone take you down, and I mean nothing and noone. Be proud to be a creative woman. Own it.

Read more:David Taggart on photographing our cover star Jeff Koons

Maryam Eisler: What makes a good photograph?
Iran Issa-Khan: Something you would never forget. You see it once and that’s it. It is with you always.

Purity by Iran Issa-Khan. Courtesy of Iran Issa-Khan

Maryam Eisler: I love the fact that you don’t stay shy of embracing the vocabulary of ‘Beauty’. Some would say it’s a taboo word in the art world today!
Iran Issa-Khan: For me, that is the only thing I live by, Beauty. Don’t forget I am going to be eighty years old in February, so I have lived a long, long, life. I live in an apartment in Miami Beach where I have water on both sides, I have boats and I look at the sky early in the morning and the sparkling lights at night. For me, it is all about beauty. Even when it rains, even when we have hurricanes, it is all beauty. It is a very special kind of beauty that only God and nature can give us – and that, rules my life and my work.

Maryam Eisler: How wonderful that you have so seamlessly managed to connect your work around nature with a place of great natural beauty, St Barts, where you currently have a show of your photographs ‘Forces of Nature’ at the Musee de Wall House.
Iran Issa-Khan: Not only that but I used to go and spend my birthdays in St Barts every year, with twenty, thirty friends, many years ago and I never realised then how fabulous it was. The museum opens its doors and all the yachts are right there…with people walking all around; It is such a perfect place to show my art.

Iran Issa-Khan’s ‘Forces of Nature’ exhibition curated by Natalie Clifford and Space Gallery St Barth is currently on display at the Musee de Wall House in St Barth until 10th February 2022.

Cary Fowler outside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Hemis/Alamy

Cary Fowler is the American visionary who established the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to ensure the security of all our crop seeds come war, famine or plague. Such future-proofing is ever more important, he tells Andrew Saunders

Appearances can be deceptive. The modest steel and concrete protrusion jutting out from the side of a mountain on the remote Norwegian Svalbard archipelago may not look like much, but it’s actually the entrance to one of the most valuable facilities on earth. Within the vaults behind it, tunnelled 120m into the rock and isolated by layers of both physical and biosecure protection to prevent contamination from the outside world, lies neither gold, gems nor fine art but something much more precious – a collection of seeds of the world’s food crops that we all rely on for our daily nourishment.

It’s the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and it was built to help protect the world from the growing threat of biodiversity loss, particularly arising from climate change. Loss of biodiversity may not be as well-known as other risks associated with global warming such as higher temperatures and rising sea levels, but it is at least as important, says Cary Fowler, biodiversity specialist and a member of the team that co-founded the vault in 2008. Because, he asks, where would we be without food to eat?

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“We are in the midst of the greatest and quickest change in climate in the history of agriculture, and our future food security is totally dependent on biodiversity. How likely is it that all the varieties of all the food crops we rely on will be able to adapt and continue to grow in conditions that they as species have never experienced before? We need to preserve diversity so that we can help our crops adapt to these new conditions.”

But how exactly does keeping a collection that so far comprises 1.1 million seed samples (with each sample containing an average of 500 seeds) from more than 230 countries literally on ice at 78 degrees north help manage climate change? As Fowler explains, different varieties of rice, wheat, millet and so forth have specific traits that suit them for specific environments. Short-stemmed cereals are less susceptible to damage from wind and rain, for example, while others may be more tolerant of heat or drought. Samples of plants with those types of traits are a crucial hedge against the uncertainty of the future. The research done by bodies such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico is critical in our understanding of which varieties are resilient to changing environments.

The entrance to the seed vault.

“Climate change will advantage some crops and disadvantage others,” he says. “If I had a time machine and could go forward 100 years, I am confident that some of the important crops we grow now will have become much less important, and others will have come to the fore. The seed vault collection makes that kind of adaptation possible.”

So, Svalbard is really a kind of global insurance policy, a backup resource to help maintain food production and preserve lives, societies and economies in the event of any natural or human-made disaster, including, but not limited to, climate change. Many of the varieties it contains are no longer grown because they have been replaced by new varieties that are more productive or easier to cultivate, but preserving them is no less important from a biodiversity point of view. “You might have a sample of wheat, say, that by modern standards is just terrible, but it could have one vital trait that is not found anywhere else – resistance to a disease that we don’t even know about today, for example. We can then crossbreed it to get that trait into the modern variety,” explains Fowler.

Read more: Markus Müller on the Importance of Global Sustainability Standards

The Seed Vault was set up as a partnership between the Norwegian government, the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen) and the Crop Trust (of which Fowler was previously executive director and where he is now a senior adviser) to conserve crop diversity in perpetuity. He well remembers the scale of the task that faced him and the team he was leading in the early days. “I’d been in the field for a few decades and I knew what was necessary to conserve crop diversity, but to do it in perpetuity? That was an interesting challenge. There are not too many jobs on the planet that involve doing something in perpetuity.”

One of the tunnels inside the vault

The vault’s construction and location were carefully chosen with that longevity in mind. Carved into the Arctic mountain, it is both physically secure – it could withstand a substantial bomb blast – and naturally cold and dry, the ideal conditions for preserving seeds. The ambient temperature inside the vault is approximately -4˚C, and mechanical cooling pulls that down to the optimum storage temperature of -18˚C. But even if the cooling system should fail, the collection would remain safely preserved for several decades. “There would be plenty of time to get up there and fix the equipment. There are no guarantees in this world, but we did the best we could with it.”

The hardest work, however, lay elsewhere, he says. “The management structure – that was the real challenge. I wanted a facility that involved as few human beings as possible, and that more or less ran itself. So that’s what there is – there are no staff located on site and the facility is naturally frozen.”

Read more: Dimitri Zenghelis on Investing in the Green Transition

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the Seed Vault an “inspirational symbol of peace and food security for the whole of humanity”, and there is a strong social justice element to its role. “I am very aware that when we do have a world food crisis, it will be the poorest of the poor who are the first to suffer,” says Fowler. “I grew up in the time of the civil rights movement in the US and have a strong interest in social justice as well as agriculture. My home is in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968. I was at his last speech the night before he was killed; it was very emotional.”

The next job for the Svalbard team – and for Fowler himself – is to raise the profile of biodiversity, both with the public in general and with philanthropists in particular. “Biodiversity is the greatest world problem that we face that we can actually resolve. If I ask you ‘What’s your solution for climate change?’, that’s really big and complicated. But we do have an answer to the question of how to preserve the biodiversity of food production – we know how to do that.”

What’s required is greater awareness and a willingness for institutions and wealthy individuals to recognise the importance of funding biodiversity, he adds. “If I was a wealthy individual and I wanted, for example, to save the whales forever, that would be a great thing to do but how much would it cost and how would you go about doing it? There’s no organisation in the world which could tell you that.”

Maize plants in a greenhouse at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico. Photo courtesy of The Global Crop Diversity Trust. Juan Arredondo/Reportage by Getty Images for The Global Crop Diversity Trust

By contrast, saving crop diversity is both practical and relatively affordable. Smaller crops could be saved for around $5m, Fowler calculates, and the cost of preserving even the most important global crops is less than you might expect. “I can tell you the answer for rice, which is our biggest crop with the most samples and therefore the most expensive. Somewhere between $35m and $50m in an endowment fund would generate enough income to save all the rice diversity in perpetuity.”

In short, his pitch is that food is the bedrock of human existence, and crop biodiversity is a great way to maximise food security in a time when climate change and a host of other potential calamities are threatening it. “Those sums are well within the scope of a number of wealthy people, and they would be the first to do something quite extraordinary and inspiring. Can you name any other major world problem that we have solved, reliably and forever, within the lifetime of someone living today? Well, we can do it with this one.”

Additional research by Candice Tucker
Find out more: caryfowler.com; seedvault.no

This article was originally published in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

Photograph by Isabella Sheherazade Sanai

The pandemic has accelerated the rise of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. However, argues Markus Müller, we must improve global standards continually if ESG is to fulfil its promise of driving economic growth while having a positive impact on the planet

Markus Müller

The coronavirus pandemic has made us acutely aware of risks to our existence and how fragile the global economic system is. Many are making the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic part of the reason why ESG has risen rapidly to the top of the global agenda, moving from rhetoric and ambition to action. At the same time, the many facets of ESG are being discussed and examined across a multitude of investment institutions, to establish what it really means and whether it serves a purpose at all.

In my view, ESG prompts a simple question about why and how we do things, as individuals, as investors and as companies.

ESG originally developed from institutional investors screening out negative risks in investment targets. Today, ESG is much more than a combination of investment ratings and exclusions. With the goal of sustainability as our objective, ESG offers a way of understanding and quantifying the non-financial dimension of economic activity and of avoiding the dangers of a ‘submerged iceberg’.

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This means identifying where the risks lie and developing innovative mitigation strategies. Mid- to long-term risk for an investor comes in many forms. Physical risks (damage or threat to physical assets due to natural or climate change) are accompanied by transition risks (business or investment risks on the journey towards a greener economy) and liability risks (reputational issues, breach of standards). These risks can affect companies in a variety of ways. Production disruption, raw material and share price volatility and capital destruction are just a few examples. Importantly, it all involves understanding nature as an asset, as an input factor in our production function.

Innovation means finding ways to avoid those risks while embracing change and preparing for new future-oriented businesses which are ESG-positive. This has two prerequisites. First, we need more data disclosure to measure the impact of what we are doing. Secondly, we need goals and an evaluation method. These two issues are linked: data will give us an understanding of the impact of economic activity and how to steer economic development, which in turn should allow us to refine these goals.

Systematic decision-making is more than just a means to an end in order to achieve an overarching, positive goal within the Purpose Economy. We must also ensure that, when looking at equitability of impact, a distinction is not merely made between labour- and capital-intensive activities. Rather, impacts should be considered in three ways: the impact of individuals (including companies); the impact of politics (including governments and institutions); and the impact of nature (including natural resources).

Fortunately, we already have broad goals. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the linked UN Principles for Responsible Investment, along with the Paris Agreements as well as the (failed) Aichi Biodiversity Targets, have set the initial direction. But there is still no consistent global approach about how to go beyond these broad goals and to put them in a detailed synthesis with financial markets. Standards can help. Reporting is widening its scope: the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) was recently launched to go beyond ESG scores and climate change, to include the risk factor represented by biodiversity loss. The International Financial Standards Reporting Foundation (IFSR) has also proposed the inclusion of sustainability standards within its constitution as it aims for the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board.

Read more: Dimitri Zenghelis on Investing in the Green Transition

So, we are advancing on multiple fronts, but the scale of the task here is enormous: even within rating agencies, ESG ratings and scores vary due to differing methodologies. Global sustainability standards for company reporting would allow integrating data, insights and ESG themes into business strategy, product-development cycles and risk management. Harmonised standards would also allow us to improve scoring, enabling a more sophisticated discussion of what exactly scores mean and the importance of a company improving its ESG score rather than just accepting it or simply trying to ‘game’ it.

At Deutsche Bank’s International Private Bank we continue to develop our methodology to make sense of this evolving landscape on global standards. We use ratings, drawing on the research and analysis of a leading third party provider, but it is important to consider these in context. We realise that we have to give firms credit for improvement on ESG metrics, for example. We also apply exclusions against sectors that go against UN goals and principles and generate long-term risks (around greenhouse gases, for example). Exclusions can also be applied on more individual value-based grounds.

Methodologies such as this require continual improvement through monitoring their effect on sustainability. But the priority should be to ensure that the impact of ESG on a client’s investments should be transparent and that they will lead to improved corporate behaviour on ESG issues. If we wish to make transparent the impact of our ESG activities, and if we want our economies to be ESG-positive, we need to all follow the same methods.

ESG is here to stay as a categorical imperative. It will, at the very least, slow down environmental degradation and will make the world and our lives richer and more meaningful.

Markus Müller is Global Head of the Chief Investment Office at Deutsche Bank’s International Private Bank. Find out more: deutschewealth.com/esg

This article was originally published in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

Consumers and business owners should take time to educate themsleves about the most effective ways to combat global heating. Pictured: The Alps on the Swiss/Austrian border, where the total winter snowfall is predicted to fall between 30 and 50% over the next 40 years according to the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology

The wealthy play a disproportionate part in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. They have an outsized responsibility to lead the way in combatting global warming. But, crowd pleasing knee jerk reactions will only lead to greenwashing and appeasing the lowest common denominator in the climate debate. Truly effective action requires resources of the most valuable kind: education and thought.

When we published an article by Professor Peter Newell last year outlining the particular responsibilities the wealthy have for reducing carbon emissions, it caused a bit of a stir. The research by Professor Newell, a UK-based academic who was the lead author of a report on the subject by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change last year, showed that the wealthy are disproportionately responsible for CO2 emissions through their consumption, habits and ability to engage in carbon-heavy activities, from flying private to attending art fairs to buying bitcoin.

Not all our readers liked that. They pointed out they participate in carbon offset schemes; that some of their activities are to benefit philanthropic and charitable institutions (theirs and others); and that they were informed about how to lower their personal carbon emissions relative to what they had been before.

To unpick these arguments is complex and points to the quandary many world leaders (political, and other) have, post-COP26, in translating good intentions to make a difference, into effective action.

Are carbon offset schemes effective, or a type of greenwash? How do you balance the benefits of social activities around the world with their carbon cost? (We all have this conundrum, to an extent, encapsulated by the old argument about whether it’s better to buy Fairtrade coffee that benefits an impoverished community in Guatemala, but requires transportation around the world, or no coffee.)

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What does being informed consist of: should you look at the Net Zero policies of companies you deal with (their stated, and often theoretical, intention to not emit carbon, on balance, sometime in the future)? Or their Scope 3 emissions – the total emissions of all their suppliers? Or at their commitment to the new buzz phrase, a “Just Transition”, that will compensate poorer countries and companies for the undeniable costs of reducing carbon emissions?

Owners of valuable classic cars can claim they are preserving second hand goods with no extra carbon cost, and creating minimal carbon footprint as they are used so little

As a relatively small media company, we can attest to the experience of the latter. Our move to 100% recycled paper, with vegetable-based inks and biodegradable coatings, from our latest issue, increased our production costs by around 40%, for no perceived increase in quality or other commercial benefits, only our own leadership role in responsible culture.

One other challenge – and here I have sympathy with the arguments of some of our readers – is consistency. Firing salvoes at easy targets, while overlooking more significant “culprits”, is baked into society, and carbon emissions are no exception.

One LUX contributor has a classic Italian sports car, which spends most of its life sitting in a dark garage, doing no harm to anything and emitting nothing. A couple of times a year they find the time and opportunity to take it out for a spin.

It is an eye-catching old car, and can’t avoid being the centre of attention, good and bad. Last spring, during one of London’s lockdowns, they took it out to a London park where they were due to meet a friend for a (legal) outdoor coffee. As they were driving slowly through the park, looking for a parking space, a young-ish father on a bicycle with two children on smaller bicycles, riding behind, overtook them and shouted “Polluter!” at the top of his voice.

From his demeanour, smart bicycle and smartly dressed children, he looked like a normal, middle-class chap who might work in marketing (or the media).

Our contributor pondered on this for days. Were they a polluter?

They had bought the car when it was already more than 10 years old, so that was a form of vintage recycling with zero carbon costs of manufacture that any advocate for carbon reduction should approve of. Five months into the year, that was the first time they had driven it and created carbon emissions, a total journey of around 10 miles/16 kilometres, which is approximately one thousandth of the annual mileage of the average driver in a developed country.

A gathering of classic Ferraris at Blenheim Palace in England. Are their owners guilty of being ‘polluters’?

When driving, the Ferrari emits around 50% more carbon than the average car, but their total mileage in the car last year was only around 200 miles/320 km, which pegs their automotive carbon emissions at less than a twentieth of the average commuter. They customarily walk or cycle to the office and meetings in London.

Of course, there was no way their interlocutor would have known all this. But other reference points are out in the open.

For example, major airlines in Europe are being compelled to fly empty planes back and forth around the continent, closed to passengers, tens of thousands of times a month, according to reports by the aviation media. This is happening for a theoretically good reason: airlines fight for valuable slots to use in major airports, and the EU stipulates they have to use or lose these slots, to prevent monopolistic behaviour and increase competition.

With low demand due to the pandemic, airlines still have to use the slots: the EU has reduced its stipulations so airlines have to land their planes 50% fewer times at given airports than they usually would, but that still means that Lufthansa, for example, is compelled to fly 18,000 near-empty flights over the course of this winter. A single flight by an Airbus A319 from Berlin to London, say, emits 10 tonnes of carbon. 18,000 flights means 180,000 tonnes of carbon emissions for no purpose.

These numbers do not include the Scope 3 emissions of each flight – the cost of transport for the crew and service teams, and so on – and they are for just one airline, out of dozens following the EU rules.

Read more: Professor Peter Newell on climate responsibility

Lufthansa alone is being compelled to create CO2 emissions equivalent to 90,000 car driving commuters over the course of a year (or three million drivers of vintage Ferraris, although there are not that many vintage Ferraris to go around), just to comply with EU rules.

EU based airlines are being forced to create enormous amounts of unnecessary CO2 emissions by flying empty planes

Lack of consistency is sometimes used as an excuse to justify immoral behaviour – “Well, he says X but he does Y, so I am going to do Y also”, which is a fallacy. But equally, if we wish to target carbon emissions, we need to be educated, informed and active.

The EU’s well-intentioned but ecologically damaging rules on aviation slots (which have been picked up by Greta Thunberg, among others) are just an example: not an excuse for us to act worse, but a reason for us to focus on the right areas, educate ourselves, see beyond the obvious targets, which in many cases may not be the correct ones. Assumptions and preconceptions won’t solve our issues; thoughtful action will.

Ferrari F8 Spider. Photo by Max Earey

In the second part of our supercar series, LUX’s car reviewer gets behind the wheel of Ferrari F8 Tributo and the F8 Spider

That’s it, folks. Ferrari fans, please shed a tear as, for all the right reasons, these two cars are the end of the bloodline for Ferrari’s celebrated mid-engined V8 series of cars.

For many, this series personifies Ferrari: Magnum PI drove a red one in the 80s TV series. The ancestral line of two-seaters grew in power and capability, though not always beauty, from the sleek 308 of the 1970s and 328 of the 1980s, through the more wedge-shaped 348 and 355 of the 1990s (not always everyone’s cup of tea, but very much of their era), to the more rounded 360 and 430 of the 2000s, and the recent evolution through 458, 488 and F8.

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The engine has always been a V8, and for some years has been an artwork visible through a clear cover behind the driver. From now, for the best of environmental reasons, the V8 will be replaced by a hybrid engine, and so the F8’s engine represents the pinnacle of Ferrari petrol engineering. We tried it out in both the fixed-roof (Tributo) and convertible (Spider) versions of the F8. It’s a glorious piece of machinery, giving a surge of power which grows to the typical Ferrari climax and you shoot towards what would be take-off velocity in a plane.

Ferrari F8 Tributo. Photo by Max Earey

Every Ferrari handles well, but we couldn’t help feeling Ferrari had engineered some extra joy back into the F8 from the 488 which preceded it. There was a sense that Ferraris were getting too brilliant for their own good, beyond comprehension in the abilities they offered to a driver, but less engaging than of old.

Read more: Catherine Mallyon on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Success

The F8 engages the driver again, the sharper steering and more involving suspension meaning you really feel like you are driving the car rather than being at the helm of a video game. Crucially, it does so at low speeds, so you don’t feel like you need to be taking it onto a racetrack for it not to be bored – a complaint we have with a number of supercars. Back when the V8 Ferrari bloodline started in the 1970s, the cars were not recommended at low speeds because they overheated and were hard to manoeuvre. More recently, they were easy to drive and reliable but a tad sterile. The F8 addresses this, and how.

The F8’s aerodynamic body and control-laden steering wheel are all about the technicality of driving at speed

Whether you go for the Tributo or the Spider just depends on your preferences. The closed-roof car is probably a tad sharper around a racetrack but it is impossible to tell the difference, roof closed, when you are not. We like an open-roofed car so we will take the Spider.

Is it a must-buy V8 Ferrari, the last of its generation? Some would say that moment came with the 458, which was the last to have a non-turbocharged engine, with less power but more glory in its sensations and noise than the F8. Others would point to its predecessor, the 430, the last with a traditional metal-gate gearshift, which has a rawness and sharpness which even the F8 hasn’t quite gained back.

What’s certain is that it’s notable in itself for its sheer tearing thrust, the sharpness and brilliance of its handling and its joie de vivre. Ferrari really is on a roll, and Ferrari fans everywhere will be hoping it continues as the company moves into a more electric future.

LUX rating: 19/20
Find out more: ferrari.com

This article was originally published in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

Celebration for the 400th anniversary and Shakespeare Live, 2016. Photo by Lucy Barriball

The mass closure of theatres in recent years has signified the loss of a vital creative touchpoint for audiences around the world. How, indeed, are theatres to continue captivating spectators with their doors closed? Samantha Welsh speaks to Catherine Mallyon, Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), about how the global heritage brand is weathering that storm – and has emerged from it thriving. From interactive online shows to its Next Generation talent development programme, the opening of its new theatre in Stratford to its ongoing work with schools, Mallyon reveals that the RSC’s future is more exciting than ever

Catherine Mallyon. Photo by John Bellars

LUX: From city trader to leader in arts administration: was this pivot by accident or design?
Catherine Mallyon: Entirely by design! I wanted to develop professional skills for arts administration and thought finance was a good place to start. Having said that, I ended up undertaking a range of roles within the bank and found it fascinating.

LUX: As Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, would you say that you are managing a global heritage brand?
Catherine Mallyon: I’d certainly agree that we are a global brand with a strong heritage, but the Company is a forward thinking, innovative and contemporary industry leader. I believe that people associate the RSC with excellence, innovation, and ambition in all the work we do. And of course, great entertainment. We believe that all societies are richer if everyone has access to great theatre. Our mission is to inspire and captivate audiences wherever they are, and to transform lives through amazing experiences of Shakespeare’s plays and great theatre.

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LUX: How can the next generation help, whether as patrons, or as managers of tomorrow?
Catherine Mallyon: We have a Next Generation talent development programme and a very active Youth Advisory Board – all young people from backgrounds and areas that have little access to theatre or careers in theatre. The focus is to give them the chance to explore a career in acting, directing or working backstage, but also developing their leadership skills so they can make their way in a career in the arts and be tomorrow’s leaders.

We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers but recognise that young people from low income backgrounds remain under-represented across the industry. We work with over 150,000 young people through our Associate Schools programme, alongside our 12 partner theatres. This work is in depth and long-term and demonstrates the power of Shakespeare and the arts to impact on young people’s lives and futures. They are very much involved in shaping the work that we do, and we hope their involvement helps to develop a lifelong love of theatre and Shakespeare.

From The Magician’s Elephant. Photo by Manuel Harlan

LUX: UK government funding for the arts has plummeted in recent years. Why is it important to counteract this?
Catherine Mallyon: School is where first encounters with Shakespeare are guaranteed to happen for all children in England and Wales, and 50% of school children around the world. These formative experiences can define how we feel about Shakespeare and theatre for the rest of our lives. We therefore place a special emphasis on working with children, young people and teachers in primary, secondary, special schools and colleges.

We have compelling evidence built over many years that demonstrates Shakespeare’s plays taught using approaches inspired by the way RSC actors and directors work in the rehearsal room can have a significant impact on young people. It raises aspirations and attainment, develops resilience and confidence, promotes wellbeing, inclusion and a sense of belonging in individual children, parents, whole school communities and in adults.

LUX: Do you see the arts as soft power?
Catherine Mallyon: Theatre and the performing arts are British assets of global significance. The UK Box Office alone generates £1.3 billion per year and theatre directly employs 290,000 people. Britain’s 1,300 active theatres draw a combined audience of 34 million people – twice that of the Premier league. We can achieve so much with a strong, inclusive and vibrant arts sector.

LUX: How did the Board manage to minimise losses over the last 15 months?
Catherine Mallyon: Covid has impacted all our areas of our operations. We lost the majority of our income overnight and had to do everything we could to minimise losses. We adapted swiftly so that we could continue to serve our communities. We offered a range of activity including launching the Royal Shakespeare Community online, offering Homework Help to children, young people and their parents; we continued to work online in communities with our network of partner schools and theatres; we performed outdoors to socially-distanced audiences in our Dell Gardens; and continued our nationwide programmes of talent development and young Shakespeare Ambassadors with young people from backgrounds currently under-represented in our workforce.

We’re delighted that our sponsors and partners continued to support and collaborate with us on our digital, Learning and community programmes and we can now welcome them back to live performances on stage with the opening of our temporary outdoor theatre – The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre.

Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Photo by Sara Beaumont

LUX: Which productions have been most commercially successful in recent years?
Catherine Mallyon: Far and away it has been the wonderful Matilda The Musical – it has won 99 international awards and is still the thing to see in the West End. It came back to celebrate its 10th birthday this autumn. Our productions of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies were also extremely successful, and we were thrilled to present The Mirror and the Light this autumn alongside Playful Productions.

Read more: Nayla Al Khaja on filmmaking and female empowerment

LUX: And artistically speaking, which productions would your Artistic Director say have broken new ground?
Catherine Mallyon: Audiences experienced a new performance environment easily accessed on their mobile, desktop or tablet with Dream, led by the RSC and created in collaboration with 15 partners including Manchester International Festival, Marshmallow Laser Feast and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The performance used the latest gaming and theatre technology together with an interactive symphonic score that responds to the actors’ movement during the show. We learnt a huge amount from that project and it was a fantastic collaboration.

The Comedy of Errors, July 2021. Photo by Pete Le May

LUX: With theatres reopening, the RSC has launched its fourth theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Tell us more!
Catherine Mallyon: It is very exciting to finally have audiences back at on-stage performances. The new, outdoor Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Garden Theatre was a brilliant way for us to welcome audiences back as many have told us that they are nervous about returning to an indoor setting. It can seat up to 500 people but we performed to a reduced capacity over summer. It’s a beautiful setting by the banks of the River Avon and with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Swan Theatre directly behind. The Comedy of Errors looked fantastic on the stage.

Catherine Mallyon is the Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)