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Man Ray, ‘L’Enigme d’Isidore Ducasse’ (1920). Photo: Mutual Art.

‘The gift is the ever-withdrawing enigma; an abstinence from representation; a figure foregrounded by the duration of withholding.’ For a couple of years now I’ve harboured a special interest in wrapped sculpture without ever fully understanding why. An encounter with Man Ray’s L’Enigme d’Isidore Ducasse (1920) – wrapped sculpture par excellence – drove me to finally interrogate precisely what internal operations were afoot. In my essay for Effects journal, I consider scopophilia, sadomasochism and the unrepresentable through a close reading of Ray’s ‘enigma’ and its sister-work, The Gift (1921). Expect references to the writings of Tadeusz Kantor, Melanie Klein and Roland Barthes. Read it here.

Stefan Dotter, ‘Record’ (2025), designed by Jonny Lu.

On Friday, 26 June 2026, I’ll be in conversation with photographer Stefan Dotter at Le Bal in Paris. Together, we’ll discuss his work documenting natural habitats and indigenous communities, and his first monograph ‘Record’, for which I have written the opening essay. We’ll consider solastalgia and image-making in the age of extinction, as well as the role of aesthetics in all of this. In contradistinction to the historical use of the camera as scientific tool, I argue that a photographer’s use of the image to convey singular forms of subjective beauty provides needed refuge, a form of solace and a source of hope. Sign up here or buy the book here.

John Giorno (GPS) archival posters, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, 2025.

I’m convening a Fieldnotes workshop called Writing Rage on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, 7–9pm. The idea is to use the ongoing construction at Pushkin House as a backdrop for questions of textual dissent and institutional critique, drawing inspiration from guerilla publishing formats and strategies. Following Jenny Holzer’s ‘Inflammatory Essays’ (1979–82), John Giorno's poetry posters and Paul Virilio’s Speed and Politics (1986), we’ll use this setting to consider urgency and furore, and its mobilisation in writing and language. Together, we’ll write short essays and collaborative manifestos for immediate dissemination, through guided reading, group discussion and prompts. My fee (from your ticket) will go to Rescue Now, a charity providing rapid, essential aid to Ukranians affected by war. Sign up here.

Nirvana Memorial Garden, Singapore, 2022. Photo: Elaine ML Tam. Re-touching: Lidija Kononenko.

I never quite knew what to do with my fascination with cemetary studies, death rituals and burial practices. Ever since I’d visited Nirvana Memorial Garden columbarium in Singapore, I’d been looking for an excuse to do an interpretive reflection on the aesthetics of Chinese gold-worship, fetishism and the afterlife etc. Current Obsession’s programming around ornamentation and the underworld were sympathetic to my curiousity, and provided me with such an excuse. Read it here.

(Left to right) Paulius Petraitis, Geiste Kincinaityte, Julija Steponaityte, Vytautas Kumza.

Fun and friendly at the ICA, moderating a panel discussion feat. research-editors Geiste Kincinaityte, Paulius Petraitis and artists Vytautas Kumza, Julija Steponaityte. Together we discussed the heroism of vision, the unstable image, verisimilitude in a post-truth world, representation and hypermediation – in an attempt to draw a ‘fragmentary portrait of the contemporary moment’. E-mail me for the audio recording, if this kinda thing is also your jam. Or read my book review here, which speaks to some of the above.

Radek Brousil, Two (2025), Krupa Gallery, London. Photo: Judd Art Index.

‘My heart is an old museum...’ so begins the prose that accompanies the eponymous group exhibition curated by Radek Brousil at Krupa, London, featuring work by Greg Carideo, Henrik Potter, Jungwon Jay Hur, Kamil Dossar, Marlon Kroll, Minh Thang Pham, Viktor Timofeev. Extending the metaphor, my text stages an encounter between exes that takes place in a quiet museum and is, at once, a thought piece on chronopolitics, objecthood, anamnesia. Visit the exhibition until 26 January 2026. Read the text here.

‘Tilda’ (2025), designed by Irma Boom, published by Rizzoli.

Tilda Swinton’s first book is a dedication to a method and ethic of working she established early with the late Derek Jarman, as well as the intimate, ongoing relationships that she has forged. For Tilda (2025), I had the pleasure of structuring the textual elements of the book, and editing the recorded conversations Swinton had with filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Almodóvar, Joanna Hogg, Luca Guadagnino; text messages with Jim Jarmusch; an introduction by Olivia Laing and a personal address to Jarman by Swinton herself. This rich, image-led publication is designed by Irma Boom and published by Rizzoli, and is available for purchase here. Sign up here to attend the book launch at the V&A, London.

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