From dust to dust
Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood’s perennial über-brat – but lest us forget, high craftsman of the hyperreal – throws up his “slavery epic” Django Unchained with little of his usual charismatic heft. This sadly...
The new Noah’s Ark
Since the dawn of civilisation, capturing animals has been a common practice. At first, human beings were motivated by pure basic instinct – the need to survive – seeking food and protection. Subsequently c...
Eastern promise
Face it – Christmas shopping is a nightmare and here at Glass, we’re no better at it than anyone else. Over the last few weeks, we have ventured out into the freezing London weather with the very best of i...
Budget boutique
A couple of years ago, an architect friend of mine applied to be on the Apprentice UK. He got down to the last 20 shortlisted before being sent home at the final hurdle – his “business plan”. When he outlin...
Mi Casa (blanca) est su Casa (blanca)
“Of all the gin joints on all the world” I ended up at Ric’s Bar Americain in Casablanca in readiness for the city's annual fashion week and started my love affair with Morocco's most business-minded popul...
In her image
On billboards, in the street and on the underground, in television adverts, music videos and from the front covers of newspapers and magazines, before we even get onto the internet, images of lust and sex a...
Still got it: Japan
C’mon, admit it. Japanese creativity bleeds heavily to all corners of art, fashion, design and architecture on a global scale, and more so than many other countries that are credited with a trendsetting nat...
On the radar: Io Echo
Dubbed everything from shoegaze to grunge to goth to dark pop to new orientalism (thanks, in part, to the band’s use of Koto harps and Chinese violins in their music), Leopold Ross and Ioanna Gika, who front th...
The power to preserve?
Two men are balancing on a small craft, propelling themselves along a moonlit river using long sticks as oars. There are two more boats ahead. All the half-naked sailors are fishermen, from an indigenous pe...
Couture in China
Haute couture, French for “high sewing” has long been synonymous with the very finest form of skill and craftsmanship. While the wider influence of prêt-à-porter often trickles down the fashion chain, haute...
The vocabulary of response
As a choreographer, whose signature style has been described as having a “sculptural quality”, Russell Maliphant’s life-long obsession with the human form and its artistic representation is brought to life ...
Ayia Napa Reunion 2013!
In the aberrant words of Maria and the Mirrors’ head soundscaper, Charles Feinstein, this collective’s MO is all “Dancehall queen meets Slovakian sex worker, under the watchful eye of Bryan Ferry”. This dic...
Face value
One of the well-honed skills of any Londoner worth their salt is an ability to keep walking and continue with their journey at a rapid pace, regardless of what stands in their way – be it a clipboard-wieldi...
The Art of Writing
Long before characters were created, the ancient Chinese made different knots on ropes in order to record information. But ropes might easily be burnt and information lost, and as life gradually became more...
InHOTim
When I was a child – and, indeed, until the day that my grandparents sold their home – nothing would make me happier than spending time in my grandparents’ garden. The garden, which to this day still forms ...
Electronic impulses
From Erol Alkan and Kelis to Snoop Dogg and the Scissor Sisters, the queue of those seeking out the talents of Hamburg-born DJ Alex Ridha keeps on growing. Having produced, collaborated, remixed and shared stag...
Without qualities – the space of Rem Koolhaas
When I proposed to talk about space instead of architecture, Rem Koolhaas appeared dubious – he said, “It’s difficult. Space has been the most important mystification of the Modern Movement. It is a colossal al...
Another green world – Glass interviews film director Ethan Reed
“GUERILLA film maker, pornographer, activist, provocateur”, cult director Peter de Rome, “the unsung hero of gay underground filmmaking”, has lead a life as cinematic as the films he was obsessed with as a chi...
Taylor made
Lancashire-born designer Charlotte Taylor is known for her quirky prints, including penguins, vintage robots, bees, ants, and other surprising things. After finishing school, Charlotte moved to London to pu...
Dream baby, dream – Glass meets Doran Edwards of the band Weird Dreams
Father, O Father! What do we here
In this land of unbelief and fear?
The Land of Dreams is better far.
William Blake, The Land of Dreams
Like the surrealist 1930s films of Hans Richter, the music of Do...
The artist
Audrey Tautou is one of those rare birds. She is simultaneously one of the most famous actresses of her generation (Amélie is the highest grossing French movie of all time and even managed to break America ...