Author: Sufiyeh

• Rude! Interview with Asttina Mandella

  Fan favourite of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 2, Asttina Mandella was robbed in the sewing competition of the series, becoming the third contestant to sashay away, leaving viewers gagging for more. Now a proud icon for the black and queer community, Asttina shows off her multi-talented skills as a dancer, model and drag queen for ZERO NINE’s Pride issue; talking style, Drag Race and ASOS. 

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• Hidden Portraits: Interview with Volker Hermes

  Volker Hermes’ series ‘Hidden Portraits’ played with the idea of covering faces, long before it became necessary to do so. The series gained notoriety last year when it went viral on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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• Shooting Stars: Interview with Scarlet Page

  Legendary rock music photographer Scarlet Page has been taking photographs of rock and pop stars for the last thirty years and if you’re a fan of music, you will have definitely seen her imagery.

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• A Surreal Female Gaze: Interview with Petrina Hicks

  Photographer Petrina Hicks uses an ensemble of marble props, live animals, taxidermy, fabrics and colourful backgrounds alongside female models to create surrealist portraits. She offers a reflection of primal female identity and a subjugation of the male gaze.

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• Beauty & Nature: Interview with Ziqian Liu for Zero.Nine Magazine

  Ziqian’s work is self-portraiture, where she combines her body with plants and mirrors, constantly exploring the balanced state of peaceful coexistence between humans and nature. Her works rarely show her face creating an anonymous body to the viewer. Ziqian is currently based in Shanghai, we caught up with her to find out more about her works.

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• Dream. Snap. Freedom: Radical Play Through Photography

  This exhibition was created from my final project of my Masters Degree at CSM with Four Corners Gallery; through various avenues of activism and research from Four Corners archive, I came to focus on radical play through photography and film. This was during the pandemic and the beginning of the BLM rallies for George Floyd. My research was formed on the basis of three main pillars of identity politics; anti-racism, LGBTQ+ and feminism. Focusing on identity rights, equality and social justice for race, gender and sexuality. 

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• Embodying The Character

  My first exhibition project as an MA student of Culture, Criticism, and Curation at Central Saint Martins titled ‘Embodying The Character’ is inspired by the influential work of Jeanetta Cochrane (1882-1957) and the collection of materials in her archive at CSM’s Museum & Study Collection. 

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• How the humble t-shirt became a political protest tool

  From its conception as an undergarment for labourers in the 19th Century, to its first
  reference in popular culture in F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920 novel This Side of Paradise and
  universal recognition on Marlon Brando in 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, the t-shirt is a hugely underrated garment capable of traversing traditional gender roles in addition to hosting a call to arms.
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• Staycation: Hawkstone Hall

  Live out your most opulent fantasies at this 18th century mansion.

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• 5 Luxury brands awarded the sustainable Butterfly Mark

  Positive Luxury connects luxury brands with sustainability through the Butterfly Mark.
  Inspired by the story of the Large British Blue Butterfly, which was brought back from near extinction in the UK, the Butterfly Mark is awarded to brands for their measurable impact and commitment to sustainability. Brands who want to be awarded must go beyond achieving a minimum sustainable standard that is compliant with local law, international law and best practice principles, and are assessed every two years across five criteria. We discover which luxury brands have been awarded the Butterfly Mark.

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