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)

Penélope Cruz at the 2018 Cannes festival wearing Atelier Swarovski jewellery. Courtesy Swarovski. 

Penélope Cruz brings her renowned energy to philanthropic and charitable work – and now she is designing jewellery for Swarovski. LUX speaks with the Spanish-born Hollywood superstar

LUX: Where do you call home?
Penélope Cruz: Madrid. I grew up in a place called Alcobendas, a suburb of Madrid, with my sister Mónica and our parents and after with my brother Eduardo. My earliest memories are of being in my home every Sunday, everybody cleaning the house. There was always music, and everybody was dancing. My mother ran a hair salon, and between the ages of five and 12, I would go to the salon and listen to the women. I don’t know why but women in a hair salon share their deepest secrets. They would share everything with everybody. That was the first acting school for me.

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LUX: Tell us how your collaboration with Swarovski came about?
Penélope Cruz: The whole process evolved very naturally. I had worn some beautiful Atelier Swarovski pieces at various events. But it was when I met Nadja Swarovski and she spoke in depth about Swarovski’s work with sustainability that I became inspired to work on a collection with her. I really care about having a positive impact on the planet, and Swarovski has a rich history of putting sustainability at the heart of what it does.

LUX: What interested you in working with Swarovski Created Diamonds in particular?
Penélope Cruz: Before speaking with Nadja, I didn’t realise that it was possible to create stones in a lab with a low impact on the environment. As soon as I became aware of Swarovski Created Diamonds and other lab-grown precious stones, I wanted to start designing pieces and use them.

Courtesy Swarovski.

LUX: Your jewellery designs seem to have a vintage Hollywood feel. Have you always been drawn to the aesthetics of the era?
Penélope Cruz: My fine jewellery collection has a classic red-carpet aesthetic and I always go back to that – they are timeless pieces that I would always choose to wear. I think there is something for every woman in what we have created.

Read more: How we created the Ruinart Frieze lounge experience at home

LUX: What is the most important thing you learned from this collaboration about how to bring a design concept to life?
Penélope Cruz: It has been an amazing learning experience. I’m very lucky that Nadja and the team have given me such creative freedom. I begin the design process by pulling together images and references of things I love, and then spend hours with the designers to distil the clippings from movies, novels, paintings, ballet dancers and vintage markets into a jewellery collection that tells the story.

Cruz with Vogue editor Edward Enninful and Nadja Swarovski, 2019. Photograph by Nicholas Harvey

LUX: Would you encourage a young person to pursue a career in acting?
Penélope Cruz: It has been an incredible honour and pleasure to build a career as an actor, and to be surrounded by so many brilliant artists in theatre, film and television. Sometimes it can be a huge challenge, but I would encourage any young person to follow their dreams, listen to their heart, work hard and stay away from drugs – whether that is in the creative industries or beyond.

LUX: When you aren’t working on a film, what personal or creative projects do you focus on?
Penélope Cruz: From the age of seven I loved redesigning the clothing and jewellery from the pages of my favourite fashion magazines. So, working on jewellery design projects is a big passion for me and I have been honoured to have the chance to fulfil my childhood dream with Atelier Swarovski, season after season.

Read more: American artist Rashid Johnson on searching for autonomy

LUX: How does your family help you to stay grounded?
Penélope Cruz: I have always kept my personal and professional lives separate. Being with my family gives me so much happiness and it is my priority.

LUX: What inspired your activism, such as your involvement with the Time’s Up movement?
Penélope Cruz: I feel very strongly about the causes I support, and I have noticed a difference in Hollywood since the Time’s Up movement created a sweeping dialogue about the treatment of women. It is already having an impact on the kind of questions we get asked in interviews. Previously, you would be in a press conference and the women would mainly be asked very rude or superficial questions. People are more careful now. It’s symbolic, but hopefully we are understanding how to treat each other with more respect. And these are issues which affect women in all industries and everywhere in the world. If we don’t all do this together, it’s useless.

Cruz with Antonio Banderas, 2019. Photograph by David M. Benett/Getty Images for Somerset House

LUX: Do you have a dream film or television project you would like to direct yourself?
Penélope Cruz: I’ve always wanted to direct. I have directed commercials and a documentary before but hopefully I will be able to do a full-length feature film someday.

LUX: What is it like working with a director such as Pedro Almodóvar, someone you’ve worked with for years?
Penélope Cruz: Pedro is like family; he is very important to me and holds a special place in my heart because he was the reason why I became an actress. I’m excited that we are making a new movie next year.

LUX: What type of music do you enjoy? Is there a track that makes you want to dance?
Penélope Cruz: I’m a big fan of everything that Pharrell Williams does. He’s an amazing producer and songwriter. I also love Eduardo Cruz’s work. He is my brother and we are very close, but I admire his work as a composer and producer so much. He just did the soundtrack for the film Wasp Network.

LUX: Has the past year changed your outlook on life?
Penélope Cruz: We are experiencing a huge moment of social change and I am still processing the transformations that are occurring around us. However, I believe that the values I hold closest – truth, justice and equality, respect for the planet and kindness towards others – will grow in strength. We truly are all one and we have to commit to creating a better tomorrow.

View Penélope Cruz’s designs for Swarovski: atelierswarovski.com

This article features in the Autumn Issue, which will be published later this month.

Ballet dancer, actor and entrepreneur Sergei Polunin. Image by Alex Kerkis

Tattooed, athletic and outspoken, ballet maestro Sergei Polunin has a way of keeping everyone on their toes. LUX talks to the dancer, actor and entrepreneur about his internet-breaking video for Hozier, working with Kenneth Branagh, and dancing in virtual reality

1. Can you describe your style of dancing?

It’s a combination of having trained in two different countries: Russia, with its classical training, precise technique and good clean positions, and England, where there is a lot of acting and expression in every movement.

2. Are you a rule-breaker?

I actually enjoy following the rules when it comes to ballet. When you’re training, you need to follow a very strict path, but in order to perform, you need to feel free. During performances, I try to discard the rules and translate what I feel for the audience.

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3. Your feelings about ballet institutions seem untraditional, though?

I’m trying to build an alternative system to compete with the old theatre system, which has been going since the 1800s, where ballet dancers are signed up and then are told exactly what to do for their whole career. They’re not allowed any representation or to negotiate for money or to choose their next project – like old Hollywood. I’m working with the government to offer dancers more money and freedom and to create some healthy competition.

4. What is the biggest misconception about male ballet dancers?

That they are silly or feminine. I was never bullied for dancing, though; I’ve always considered it a man’s job. Boxers learn dancing to improve their flexibility and to hide emotions. Just as a dancer never shows how hard they are working, a fighter hides where his next punch is coming from. Also, if you choose to study ballet, you’ll be surrounded by girls! That would never happen with football.

5. Did you expect Hozier’s ‘Take Me to Church’ video with your dance to go viral?

Not really, no. When they filmed the video, I had been thinking about quitting dancing for acting, so I wasn’t in the best shape at the time. I’m happy that so many people appreciated it but I still see lots of technical mistakes!

Here and above: Sergei Polunin photographed by Morgan Norman

6. How do you connect with the audience when you are dancing in an arena?

Performing for that many people gives me more energy. I could actually dance larger, perform bigger! It’s important to show that ballet can work for big stadium audiences, too.

7. What great traditional ballet roles are left for you to perform?

So many amazing dancers have already performed these roles, I don’t think I could add anything. I want to create new things instead.

Read more: Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Nicolas Bos on the poetry of jewellery

8. Are there any stories begging to be made into a ballet?

Many! You can turn anything into a ballet. Imagine a Marvel or DC comic and dancing as the Joker or the Penguin.

9. How about a ballet about the Kardashians?

Absolutely! Dance has no boundaries. You can dance as a chess piece, a planet, a myth, a god.

10. What do you think is the future of dance?

Virtual reality and 3D technology are the perfect mediums for dance. Once a dance is done, how can the performance be saved forever? I think virtual reality is the answer.

11. You’ve acted in films directed by Kenneth Branagh and Ralph Fiennes. Did they give you any acting advice?

They didn’t have too many corrections on set. I think as an actor you transfer your personal energy into the role. Some actors just make you want to look at them, like Mickey Rourke or Marlon Brando on screen – I don’t care what they’re doing or saying, I just look at them.

12. Can you imagine a life without dancing?

Dance is my centre and my core. I always come back to it. It comes easily to me, but I don’t spend time thinking about it. I pursue other things like acting and I’m building a foundation to bring together financing, resources and people to develop and fund creative projects. I want to support different kinds of talents – choreographers, lighting designers, costume designers, painters, film directors, playwrights.

Discover more: poluninink.com

This interview was originally published in the Summer 2020 Issue. 

As the globe’s art lovers gather at Frieze London, Anna Wallace-Thompson interviews one of the world’s greatest living artists exclusively for LUX.  The expansive career of William Kentridge has seen him design opera sets, stage multidisciplinary performances and create hard-hitting and poignant drawings and animations. His work explores the legacy of apartheid, as well as the human condition, and the ever-repeating cycles of history and memory.

When William Kentridge was three years old, he wanted to be an elephant. At 15, he declared his intention to become a conductor, but was somewhat crestfallen to discover one needed to know how to read music in order to do this. In his twenties, he decided to attend theatre school, and it was there, he says, that he found the confidence to realise he would never become an actor. At 30, a friend broke the news to him: stop calling yourself a technician, or a set designer. You’re an artist! No more talking about ‘falling back’ on a sensible career – time to sink or swim. This should have come as no surprise, for Kentridge had always been drawing and creating – “to make sense of the world”. At 34, he had a breakthrough. His 1989 animated film Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris introduced an intrigued audience to the first of what would become nine films chronicling the rise and fall of the characters Soho Eckstein, his wife, and her lover Felix Teitelbaum – all brought to life, in charcoal, through a unique draw-and-erase stop-motion animation technique.

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Carnets d’Égypte (2010), a multimedia ‘excavation’ of ancient Egypt

In fact, the world of William Kentridge is defined by those dark, deft lines of charcoal, which, as he explains to me, “make us aware of the work we do in recognising what we are looking at”. They capture, in a few strokes, the nuances of bodies and personalities, joy and heartache. When animated, they appear and disappear over and over to create living, breathing figures; the erased traces of lines remaining in the background, marking the passing of time and the endurance of memory. Now, at 63, Kentridge is often referred to as South Africa’s Picasso, and his fiercely intelligent oeuvre encompasses those signature charcoal drawings and animations as well as sculpture and theatre. He also creates vast, multidisciplinary performances using shadow puppetry, music, dance and sculpture – so that theatre school wasn’t wasted after all. His work has appeared in museum shows around the world, most recently Thick Time at London’s Whitechapel Gallery (2016–17), and O Sentimental Machine (2018) at Frankfurt’s Liebieghaus. He also debuted a special performance at London’s Tate Modern in July, titled The Head & the Load. The latter is, he admits, is “filling all my thoughts at the moment. It is the most ambitious work I’ve done… even though it is not necessarily the largest.” For, of course, in addition to theatre, Kentridge also has decades of opera design under his belt – and that means whole choirs on stage.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s dialogue across time and space

Kentridge is also a striking man. He is not particularly tall, yet appears tall. His sharp features, marked by dark bushy eyebrows are at once stern yet kind, lending him a sort of old world grace and gravitas (it is telling that Linda Givon, founder of his long-time gallery, Goodman, has referred to him as “a genius and a gentleman”). His parents, Sydney and the late Felicia Kentridge, were anti-apartheid lawyers. During his career, the now 95-year-old Sydney defended Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as well as the family of activist Steve Biko in the infamous Biko Inquest – investigating the death of the Black Consciousness Movement founder at the hands of police. Kentridge has spoken of the pervasive sense of “indignation and rage at the dinner table” during his childhood, as well as a now-famous story during which the young Kentridge, thinking it was full of sweets, accidentally stumbled upon a box full of police photographs of brutalised bodies being used as evidence. Those images, he recalls, percolated in his subconscious and found their way into his work decades later, and it was only then that he himself recalled the incident, and told his father.

‘O Sentimental Machine’ (2015) at Liebieghaus in Frankfurt

With this backdrop of apartheid, it is natural that there is violence in Kentridge’s art, but there is immense, overpowering beauty too. Much of his work is political – a ruthless yet contemplative exploration of the human condition and the ramifications and consequences of apartheid in South Africa in particular, but also events in general. History, for Kentridge, is a collage – a series of intermingling events each affecting the other, and it is his insight into ‘the other side’, the understanding that “everyone’s triumph is someone else’s lament” that gives it such an edge. “I imagine working with Kentridge is what it must have been like working with Charles Dickens or Shakespeare,” the Whitechapel’s Iwona Blazwick tells me. “He is a phenomenon. Of all the artists we’ve worked with, he’s the greatest polymath, and so open and excited to work with other people.”

Scenes from ‘The Head & the Load’ (2018) performance at London’s Tate Modern

This is the reason why, to define Kentridge’s work as exclusively South African would be misleading in many ways. Its impact and appeal lies in its ability to transcend cultural boundaries. Speaking in the documentary, Certain Doubts of William Kentridge, he has explained, “The work is political in that it takes the political part of the world as one of its subject matters, in the same way one could look at love or deception or the structure of personalities, as a subject to endlessly investigate and play with.” For him, it is the ambiguity of any ‘message’ in his work that allows him such freedom – and part of why he loves, and often uses, Dadaist elements, as reflective of a process of not making sense in order to make sense. In many ways, this is the essence of Kentridge, as is his interest in what he has dubbed ‘the less good idea’. He often quotes the adage “if the good doctor can’t cure you, find a less good doctor” – if one idea isn’t working, find the less good one, for that is where the interesting stuff truly happens.

When I meet him, he is in London to unveil a slightly different artistic project, namely, this year’s Vendemmia d’Artista, an annual artist commission by Italian super-winery Ornellaia. The collaboration feels natural, for Kentridge has something of a special relationship with Italy – evidenced most recently by the vast, 550-metre-long processional fresco, Triumphs and Laments, ‘reverse stencilled’ along the walls on the banks of the Tiber (high-pressure water was used to remove layers of dirt from the wall’s surface and create the images).

Kentridge’s Salmanazar creation for Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista

For Ornellaia’s 2015 Il Carisma, now in its 30th vintage, he has created special wine labels, drawing in charcoal on the pages of old Italian cash books sourced by him from flea markets in Tuscany. On them, he depicts grape pickers and wine secateurs, a shadow procession, as it were, of the people and tools involved in making wine, celebrating “a great harvest of hard labour”. And the secateurs? “I’m interested in things with hinges,” Kentridge explains. “It gives objects an anthropomorphism, and creates things that can walk.” Two of these figures will be realised as three-metre-high, painted steel sculptures and placed in the Ornellaia vineyard itself.

Read more: Entrepreneur John Caudwell on luxury property & philanthropy

The sale of these special bottles by Sotheby’s raised £123,000 for the Victoria & Albert Museum. The star piece, which went under the hammer for £50,000, is a Salmanazar with a mirrored casing. When placed upon a special drawing, it reflects a series of figures, bringing to life Kentridge’s vineyard procession. “The thing about mirror reflections is that you get an image without end,” Kentridge explains. “There is no edge to the form: it has a top and a bottom, but you can keep circling around. In this case it’s a static drawing of wine pickers, growers and makers, and at the Tate it will be humans carrying shadows along a long curve as they circle around a stage.”

Kentridge is referring to his most recent project, an expansive theatrical production marking the centenary of the First World War – and more specifically, the role of the millions of African porters and carriers who served (for the most part unacknowledged and forgotten in the historical record) in that war. The Head & the Load takes its name from a Ghanaian proverb (‘The head and the load are the troubles of the neck’) and draws on Kentridge’s vast experience of operatic production, set design, shadow puppetry, mechanised sculpture, dance and film projection. Debuting over the summer at Tate Modern, it saw Kentridge team up with his longtime composer collaborator Philip Miller as well as choreographer and dancer Gregory Maqoma to create a theatrical, musical procession.

“I am interested in processions for a couple of different reasons,” Kentridge muses. “One is that they have to do with human foot power – people moving themselves along. Obviously, this has echoes of migration, of refugees walking and the idea of human power moving from one part of the world to another.” The other aspect, he explains, is to do with lateral movement, referencing the analogy of Plato’s cave, in a processional work the figures move sideways to the viewer, rather than backwards and forwards (towards and away from). When they pass by us,we become passive, witnesses to the passage of time. “The world is filled with people, with loads on their backs and their heads, walking across the world,” he explains. “What is our relationship to that passage of passing?”

Stills from ‘Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris’

Plato is also key, as shadows have become one of Kentridge’s signature motifs, the use of monochrome (greatly influenced by what he sees as a rather bleak landscape around Johannesburg) evident in his animation works as well as in the use of large-scale shadow puppets and mechanical sculptures. “Colour had so many problems for me, associated with how one used it, that it stopped the question of what one was using it for,” Kentridge has said. “Charcoal, black and white, it’s much closer to writing… instead of writing with a pen, one’s writing in a shorthand with images and the images can always be at the service of something other than themselves – an idea, a theme, a question that’s being asked.”

Read more: Caroline Scheufele on Chopard’s gold standard

The use of shadow processions in his theatrical work, then, is an evolution of his schematic moving figures, as seen in films such as Ubu Tells the Truth, in which he combines moving puppets with charcoal animation. “There is something very simple about shadows, in that you take a basic shape, and when it’s cast as a shadow, one still recognises it,” says Kentridge.
“For example, without having to make a real model of a boat, you can cut out the silhouette of one, and everybody will recognise your boat – even though it’s just a few sticks and some cardboard. So in that sense, it is a sort of poor art form, yet it has a real richness of both allusion and illusion when you watch it.” There is a lot to be said for the democratising abilities of the ‘poor art form’ of silhouettes and puppets – indeed, in the 18th and 19th centuries, cut-paper silhouette portraits became a cheap and affordable alternative to photography or painting. “I hadn’t thought of them in that form specifically, but there is something very simple about them,” Kentridge responds. “A silhouette has a kind of life and a presence. We’re so good at recognising and putting meaning to a shape, so even if we don’t know how to draw something, we can recognise it as it appears in front of us. A lot of the pieces I create, when I look at them on the ground, I can’t quite tell what the image in front of me is, but as soon as it’s held up, and its shadow is cast, it reveals itself completely. I’ll be surprised, even though I made it – you can’t always predict what the shadow will be.”

When it comes to the theme of The Head & the Load, as with much of Kentridge’s work, it deals with historical events, human flow and facts that might otherwise slip through the fingers of history. During the First World War, there were over a million African casualties – of these about 30,000 were soldiers, but a staggering 300,000 were carriers, another 700,000 civilians. “I was astonished at my own ignorance at the start of the project, and the way in which these fatalities devastated different sections of Africa,” he says. “I also had no idea of the 300,000 Chinese in the Western Front, or the hundreds of thousands of Indian sepoys that were in Africa and in France.”

Kentridge’s fresco ‘Triumphs and Laments’ (2016) along the walls of the Tiber in Rome

It seems unfathomable that something like this could be so unknown. “I think this is because, all the air, as it were, has been taken by [the Eurocentric experience of] All Quiet on the Western Front and Wilfred Owen – that’s what we learned in school,” says Kentridge.
“That’s what one found so moving, and had such a strong connection to.” As a nod to this, The Head & the Load does feature a fragment of Owen’s poetry – translated, in true Kentridge Dadaist fashion, into forgotten French as well as a dog barking (“well, it might have metamorphosed now into a crow rather than a dog,” he twinkles) – Kentridge’s way of saying it’s time to remember other things as well, to be aware of someone else’s lament. The work stands as emblematic of the fraught relationship Africa has had with Europe since colonisation of the continent began, what Kentridge characterises as, “Europe not understanding Africa, not hearing Africa, and Africa having all of these expectations and hopes of Europe.” He pauses and smiles sadly. “As somebody said to me: ‘Not one of our dreams came true. Freedom! Oh, we missed the boat again.’ So yes, it’s incomprehensible.”

View William Kentridge’s portfolio: mariangoodman.com/artists/william-kentridge

Poet, co-founder of poetry night BoxedIn and host of Jawdance, Yomi Sode

Eclectic, competitive and radical, Slam Poetry is a fringe form of spoken word poetry and protest, blurring the lines between hip hop and the performance arts. It is an increasingly popular art form for those wishing to express political protest and radical emotion, due to its dramatic intensity in action as well as in language. It is also unique for its organic propensity to resist commercialisation and remain authentic on stage.

Poetry slams provide a platform for every kind of person to express their feelings on issues as far-reaching and globally significant as the refugee crisis, Black Lives Matter, identity politics and oppression of sexuality. As the world moves towards ever-increasing commerciality of art and self-expression – an example being the twisted use of feminism as a fashion statement – it seems that Slam Poets may be the only people with the ability to resist these falsehoods and cut straight through to the truth of our times.

Rhiannon Williams speaks to Yomi Sode, the talented Nigerian-born London-based poet, co-founder of landmark poetry night BoxedIn and host of Jawdance, on what makes Slam Poetry special.

LUX: Did you always want to be a poet?
Yomi Sode: No, poetry kind of crept in. I used to MC before, I used to DJ, I still have my vinyls – I am a proud collector of what I could class as ‘vintage grime’. I kind of ventured in all aspects and areas of music first.

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LUX: How did you discover Slam Poetry?
Yomi Sode: I first discovered Slam Poetry through a legend of a poet called Joelle Taylor. I saw this event that was happening, I think it was a SLAMbassadors event, and I thought this was cool to get involved in, and that’s how I met Joelle. I’m now faced with what is Slam poetry and I saw how these groups came up, how these individuals came up to do solos and it just blew my mind. But even after the event it wasn’t enough to pull me in to be interested in spoken word poetry. I loved it, but it wasn’t what I was used to with MC-ing, it was a very different form of expression.

But then I was in New York and I wanted to share some poems. The Nuyo [Nuyorican Poets’ Café] is a staple spot in terms of spoken word and the evening I got there I signed up but I didn’t realise it was a Slam – I accidentally signed up for my first Slam. Not only a Slam, but a Slam in America. And I actually got through to the final but the next stage of it was on the Friday and I wasn’t in New York for it!

LUX: How would you describe Slam Poetry to someone who hasn’t encountered it before?
Yomi Sode: It’s so difficult because Slam Poetry in different parts of the world is expressed in many different forms. So, should you look at the way the States take it on it has a very intense feeling to it; it’s very passionate, it’s driven with purpose. Folks don’t just go onto that stage and read a poem, they bare absolutely everything. It’s very personal, it can get very political, they take it very seriously there. In England what I’ve noticed is that it can be lighter, it can be a bit comedic, and of course there are many elements of seriousness, but the core of how it is in the states is very different.

You can make something very special out of 3 minutes’ worth of work and that’s an experience – as a a poet and an audience member – that you remember for a very long time.

Yomi Sode in performance

LUX: What’s the difference between a poetry Slam and a spoken word night?
Yomi Sode: I just came off the back of judging UniSlam in Leicester and there was this one piece that actually made me uncomfortable. And that’s what the power is of a Slam compared to your typical poetry night. At Jawdance for example, each person comes up to an open mic and you’ll see them again next month probably. With a poetry slam, even though the ethos isn’t about the winning and more about the experience, the process, you are still there to win and through that drive comes this energy. You get triple the amount of passion for the message coming through.

Read more Poetry Muse: The augmented poetry of Eran Hadas

LUX: You said you were judging UniSlam. What kinds of things are you looking for in these Slam poets’ performances?
Yomi Sode: It was very hard when I was judging. I was looking for any quirky lines, I was also marking up anything that sounded a bit cliché. One poet I remember went on there and he started with ‘my love’ and I was like oh god, because straightaway when you start with a line like that, I already know where you’re going.

LUX: What do you think is the unique appeal of a poetry that is performed and not just read? How does it feel to stand up on stage, vulnerable and utterly visible, sharing your art with an audience?
Yomi Sode: Performance is very important. To stand on stage and just read a poem and trust that you will feel what I’m feeling. I could have the most powerful poem on stage but if I read it in a monotone voice, it won’t sink into you as much as I want. Or I could absolutely read it in that monotone voice because that’s the kind of energy I want to give. You just need to know how your poem will present on stage.

LUX: Slam poetry is often both political and personal. What are some of the common themes that recur in the Slam Poetry scene?
Yomi Sode: What I find often in Poetry Slam is that the same themes will crop up along the lines of heartbreak, sexuality, rape, racial injustices, all those things there, are all packaged into a similar poem – but the way the poem approaches it is what is interesting to me. You have to believe in what you’re saying.

LUX: You’re involved in lots of poetry events going on in London – what do you think is the significance of nights like these for poets and poetry-lovers, as well as the community as a whole?
Yomi Sode: BoxedIn and Jawdance are not the only poetry nights that happen in London; there are a lot of mini poetry nights across London that people are not necessarily aware of. Those nights happen either weekly, monthly or bi-monthly or whatever it is, and they’re not in the limelight. I guess one of my aims with BoxedIn is that I’m going to encourage poets from these nights – other poets on the poetry scene – because my concern is that we’re always dipping in the same pool, picking out the same poets. And there are poets in and out of London doing some amazing things.

LUX: How would you describe the poetry circuits in large multicultural cities such as London? What needs changing, in your opinion?
Yomi Sode: It’s saturated in London. I feel like I’ve exhausted in London. And even then, there are still so many poets in London that we don’t know about. UniSlam is the national poetry event: there were folks from Glasgow, folks from Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, and I’m like this is what I’m talking about. It was just amazing to break out of London and find out what else is going on.

Read next: Geoffrey Kent on the rise of luxury adventure travel

LUX: How do you avoid creative burnout?
Yomi Sode: I allocate my time well. I say no to things often. I spend less time on social media now and I’m so used to coming off social media so regularly that I honestly have no reason to be on there anymore. I wanted to tackle the need to be on there every day – it was a pleasure to go offline for a while, then come back on to announce a new project. All that learning has been interesting for me – making space and time for my work.

LUX: These days there is a certain commercialism to creativity. In what ways would you say Slam poetry is able to resist commercialism, giving people who may not otherwise have a ‘true’ creative space a voice for self-empowerment?
Yomi Sode: Poets maintain a bridge between commerciality and their own individuality – whether we’re talking about Kate Tempest or Inua Ellams and his Barber Shop Chronicles which, last I checked was in Australia. It’s amazing stuff. A lot of my peers and the folks that I’ve grown up with on the scene are being used in adverts, and the purists, the poetry purists, see these adverts and go: that’s not poetry. And while it’s a massive clash of ideals, I can’t speak for another person’s choice. I can’t tell someone that they should be a purist when they might have a family to feed. People make their decisions for what they want to do. Poetry going commercial? It will happen. It’s up to the writer as to how they want to balance that. It’s their own journey going forwards.

Poet, musician and playwright Kate Tempest

LUX: Is there a poem that you feel you need to write, but have yet to?
Yomi Sode: There are poems that I’m waiting to write. I’m trying to eradicate the thoughts of writers’ block. I’m working towards a collection of poems.

LUX: What does poetry mean to you?
Yomi Sode: It’s an experience that’s life changing. Because you could be in the position where your life is in a certain way and that one person comes on stage and does something that speaks to how you’re feeling. That’s what poetry does, it gives that kind of permission to almost speak someone’s thoughts, and I think that that’s a beautiful thing.

British model and clown in training, Hazel Townsend. Image by Felicity Ingram

Sydney Lima

LUX contributing editor and Storm model, Sydney Lima continues her online exclusive series, interviewing her peers about modelling life and business.

THIS MONTH: Four years into a career as a successful British model Hazel Townsend, a regular face on the pages of Vogue and Elle, discovered a new passion: clowns. The 23 year-old Storm model began raising money using a crowd funder page to pay for a year of clown school at the prestigious École Philippe Gaulier, where the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter studied. During London Fashion Week, Townsend took donations to wear humorous costumes to her castings, which she documented on Instagram. This year she began her training.

Sydney Lima: When did you first get scouted?
Hazel Townsend: This is a little hazy in my memory now. I was 18 but I think I was 19 before I actively started pursuing it.

SL: What are you favourite things about working in fashion?
HT: No matter how uninterested in fashion I have pretended to be, you end up soaking up knowledge and forming your own opinions on things, getting an eye, appreciating aesthetics. I have a whole new reason for applying this since playing with theatre. Oh and the people. You meet some of the best people.

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SL: Has there been a favourite shoot to date?
HT: That’s almost too difficult to answer. Are we talking about the process? The result? Or the prestige? My favourite shoots are where I get given the opportunity to play. I did a shoot with Anya Holdstock a while back where I got to romp around the new forest where I grew up. So that was pretty special.

Image by Nicola Collins

SL: What inspired you to go to clown school?
HT: I just slowly got absorbed into the cult. There were a couple of shows that made me piss myself laughing and I had no idea why. So I made the decision to seek out that pleasure and that beauty.

SL: Have you always been interested in theatre?
HT: No not at all! I always thought I was going to be Indiana Jones. Going out with a puppeteer sort of opened up that world for me. I had a lot of fun being a quiet observer but soon I couldn’t contain the impulse to get up and make things.

Sydney Lima: Do you see modelling as an extension of your creativity or something that exists separately?
Hazel Townsend: It has definitely been where I have learned the most about the creative process. Every shoot now feels like a small opportunity to perform now.

SL: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
HT: I am going back to school for the main clown module and then I am planning to plan some plans to unleash what I learn on the world.

William Kentridge, “The Refusal of Time”

William Kentridge, “The Nose”

Travelling from the Whitechapel Gallery in London to Museum der Moderne , Salzburg, “Thick Time” by William Kentridge is an intriguing and comprehensive exhibition investigating the South African artist’s multimedia dialogues with themes such as colonialism, racial capitalism and revolution. Sketchy, charcoal animations, video installations and drawings fill both of the museum’s spaces in a giddy insight into Kentridge’s complex and macabre aesthetic.

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Yet it’s the theatrical elements that are perhaps the most captivating and revealing. As an actor, producer, set and costume designer, Kentridge’s visual art is heavily influenced by performance and narrative; the exhibition’s opening was timed to coincide with the premiere of Kentridge’s production of “Wozzeck” at the Salzburg Festival and tracks the artist’s theatrical career from the late 1970s to present through a display of posters, designs, models and costumes. Kentridge is a maker of worlds. His work across all mediums is textured, dark and completely consuming.

William Kentridge, “Second-hand Reading”

Millie Walton

“Thick Time: Installations and Stagings” runs until 5th November 2017 at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg