No wallflower

Inside the Chinese film industry, only a lucky few girls go far beyond simply being well-known in China. But those who are selected by legendary director Zhang Yimou, one of the few directors to achieve int...

Off the beaten slope

It was a sign of good things to come – Swiss hospitality less than an hour after arriving, courtesy of a kindly stranger on the train offering to share his Toblerone. In search of a tranquil Alpine retreat,...

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...

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...
Io Echo's Leopold Ross and Ioanna Gika,

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...

The searcher

Paolo Roversi is one of the few contemporary photographers whose work is immediately identifiable. The soft focus and slow exposure of his beloved 8x10 camera have become his signature. Apart from the nosta...

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 ...