Fitness advice: Bulking up is about more than just protein shakes. Here’s how to make gains October 4, 2017 During initial consultations, clients will often say that they want to lose weight and gain muscle. In theory this is what we all need to do, but in a short space of time, such as three months, you shouldn’t expect to see much muscle actually being added. While most of the top transformations at [...]
Interiors: How to commission a tapestry and why they’re making a surprising comeback in British homes October 4, 2017 The lengths some people will go to for a wedding. In 2013 Prince Albert II of Monaco paraded his bride along a red carpet 103 metres long and weighing a mighty 1.3 tons. And it wasn’t just any old red carpet – it was a hand-tufted commission from the artist Jan Kath, whose work is [...]
After the Rehearsal / Persona review: An emotionally wrought, powerhouse of an Ingmar Bergman double-bill September 28, 2017 The biggest cheer at the end of this exceptional double bill wasn't for the three actors who had endured an unusually intense evening, but for the tall, handsome, grey-haired form of Ivo van Hove, the Dutchman who might just be the best theatre director working today. He certainly earned the plaudits for this super-stylish, emotionally [...]
Iconoclasts at the Saatchi Gallery review: This repeatedly fascinating collection of pieces is in search of a unifying theme September 28, 2017 Iconoclasm is an apt subject for an exhibition in 2017, when nary a venerated institution remains unscathed. But if you’re hoping for a coherent argument about its place in the modern artistic canon, you will leave the Saatchi Gallery disappointed. If, however, you’re happy to simply enjoy the works of 13 vastly different artists without [...]
A life off-grid with no energy bills is closer than you think. Here’s what the future has in store for sustainable homes September 26, 2017 "Right," says eco-developer Sam Budhdeo, rubbing his hands together. “We think we have the solution to climate change.” As openers go, it’s a bold one, but not quite as outlandish as it sounds. The housebuilder who successfully cracks the code to building sustainably – and affordably – would be solving a large part of the [...]
The world’s most exclusive nightclub? It’s hidden in a jungle in Thailand September 22, 2017 Clinging to the Cape Panwa peninsula on the very tip of south eastern Phuket, Sri Panwa is buried deep within tropical jungle, up a steep, winding track that appears just as it seems there is nowhere else to go but off the cliff and into the sea below. Secluded, hard to find and difficult to [...]
Basquiat: Boom for Real at the Barbican charts the astonishing ascendancy of New York’s hippest 80s scenester September 21, 2017 His works fetch more at auction than those of any other American painter – one sold this year for £85m – but Jean-Michel Basquiat remains an outsider in the world of contemporary art, written off by many as little more than a precocious street artist with connections. And, in this country at least, you could [...]
I went up a mountain in Sri Lanka to meet a reclusive mystic and here is what I learned September 14, 2017 Somewhere high up in the hills surrounding the town of Kandy in Sri Lanka, there lives a man called Rahju. An artist, spiritualist and musician, Rahju practices meditation while riding along coastal roads on his motorcycle. His paintings are inspired by the writing of Buddhist philosophers and the intergalactic observations of the Hubble Space Telescope [...]
Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain review: A wonderful collection of objects that find beauty in the everyday September 14, 2017 If we could all find someone to look at us the way Rachel Whiteread looks at an empty loo roll, the world would be a happier place. Few artists find quiet beauty in everyday things like she does. While her contemporaries like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin were creating sculptures filled with live flies or [...]
Mother! film review: Darren Aronofsky’s brutal new film is as dark as it is hilarious September 14, 2017 Nobody who’s seen Requiem for a Dream or Black Swan expects an easy ride from Darren Aronofsky, but his latest film still manages to blindside you, setting up what first appears to be a gentle farce before sucker-punching you with some of the most gleefully heinous imagery you’re likely to see this year. It follows [...]