Innehållsförteckning för Issue #108 från RUSSH

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own Idealistic and pioneering, Virginia Woolf penned books that gave language to ideologies that lingered in the peripheries. Unafraid of difference, refuting distraction, and fearless in her expression of critical reservations, Woolf has raised generations of readers to find power in their femininity, despite she herself belonging to one in which she still had to fight – tooth and nail – to be taken seriously as a female writer and academic. Her defiance extended to her sartorial attitude, known for her eccentric attire that went against the grain; orange stockings, men’s suits, gauche silhouettes and garish florals. Binaries…

PHOTOGRAPHY Charles Dennington @MAP FASHION Charlotte Agnew MODEL Sophia Gerakas @The Scouted HAIR Kyye Reed @AP—REPS MAKEUP Cherry Cheung @Vivien’s Creative DIGITAL OPERATOR Ryan Flanagan PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Oliver Black STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Sophia Stamellos…

The Crane Wife CJ Hauser (PENGUIn) This memoir in essays is bold, queer and brilliantly weird. The essays speak to, across and through each other. Hauser reckons with patterns of doing and living, illuminating how these are embodied, curated by our histories and cultural narratives. There’s a bright and vulnerable magic in this collection, especially in its whip-smart analysis of other texts and how these contribute to CJ’s unfurling and growing-into themself. Hauser grows so big across these essays, writing themselves and unlearning old patterns. To me, this is the real pleasure of this book. I saw myself reflected in its pages — the pain of being an outsider, shapeshifting for love, the deep wounding of being gendered. The stories about shame are elegantly re-worked and gifted back to the…

Growing up in Queensland, Poland and Saudi Arabia before settling in Sydney and then France, you get the sense that Anastazia Bobis has lived a life brimming with experience and wonder. Her curiosity for surveying the human experience comes across in the brushstrokes of her paintings and the moulding of her sculptures. Each piece captures a fleeting moment – a split second of eye contact on a morning walk; a windy and unsettled character reading the paper on an evening commute. Bobis’ voyeuristic eye drives her practice. She documents brief interactions via her phone before painting them from her Paris studio. Her sense of colour and penchant for documenting vulnerability in the most mundane of observations are what draw you in. It is a universal expression and disposition that you…

“The idea is not to live forever; it is to create something that will.”– Andy Warhol PHOTOGRAPHY Kitty Callaghan FASHION Charlotte Agnew MODEL Ella Niasse @Elite Paris HAIR Brigitte Meirinho MAKEUP Ellen Walge…

“It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive.”– Louise Bourgeois PHOTOGRAPHY Sam Wilson FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Vilma Sjöberg @Next Models HAIR Adam Garland MAKEUP Joel Babicci PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Matthew Tortolano and Max Bartholomew STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Kirsten Humphreys CASTING Neill Seeto @IMA Casting LOCATION Monk’s House, former home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf. Special thanks to the National Trust UK…

PHOTOGRAPHY Mia Rankin @LIMINAL REP FASHION Coco Adorjany MODELS Akuol Dau, Charlotte Moffat @Priscillas HAIR Adam Dyer @SAUNDERS & CO MAKEUP Cat Smith @AP—REPS PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT McCall Manuel STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Chelsea Oh…

“Science strives for answers. But art is happy with a good question.”– James Turrell PHOTOGRAPHY Joshua Bentley FASHION Hannah Cooper MODEL Salvatore Aljaidi @Kult Australia HAIR & makeup Cherry Cheung PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Bruno Stefani STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Mia Kidis…

About the author, Becca Wang: Becca Wang is a writer and poet undertaking her BFA in Creative Writing at the Queensland University of Technology. She is the winner of the 2022 Spark Prize and has been published in Cordite Poetry Review. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and the 2022 Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Prize. Wang also writes about food, wine, and hospitality for Broadsheet Media. When my father died, I sat in front of my mother at the wake. There were enough chairs set up for fifty people but there were only three of us, so we sat in the first three rows, one person in each as if we were high-schoolers on an empty bus. She didn’t cry at first. ‘Ni zhi…

The internet used to be a source of constant inspiration if you knew where to look. Tumblr and Pinterest would show you something you were drawn to, sending you down a rabbit hole of similar images you could categorise and analyse for common threads; each leading somewhere slightly different, helping to inform and impel. Pictures of street corners would be interspersed with architecture. Fashion editorials with vintage film stills. A sunset somehow said more about style than every curated outfit social media serves today; where, instead of facilitating new discoveries, apps isolate users in echo chambers based on repetitive content and recommendations. It’s near-impossible to find newness or the unexpected, or to differentiate your sense of self – or your sense of style – from that which you’re served; to…

When Katy Hessel was 21 and working the front desk at Victoria Miro’s gallery, she had a sudden epiphany that, despite studying art history and being immersed in the art world, she couldn’t name 20 female artists. Enter the launch of @thegreatwomenartists, a daily Instagram account that celebrates women artists, from the contemporary to the forgotten and the erased. The London-based art historian, curator and broadcaster now writes a fortnightly column for The Guardian, and hosts The Great Women Artists podcast, where she has interviewed artists including Marina Abramovi and Barbara Kruger, and writers Ali Smith, Olivia Laing and Deborah Levy. I caught up with Hessel ahead of her appearance at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival to discuss her Sunday Times and The New York Times best-selling book, The Story…

No two camellias are alike. Like a fingerprint, each flower is unique. They vary in colour — from snow white through to black — but also in size, shape and petal formation. “There are very few plants, apart from roses, that have this type of colouration,” explains Jean Thoby, an internationally renowned camellia expert. “Camellias, through their diversity, are great teachers; they teach us patience and perseverance.” Thoby has been dedicated to plant conservation for most of his life. His parents, nursery owners in Nantes, France, cultivated more than 200 camellia varieties. “These beautiful flowers were a constant presence throughout my childhood,” he shares. “I learned to care for plants — cutting, sowing, repotting — well before I turned 10. Camellias, in a way, were my first teachers in the…

Belts are great. Not many people think much about them… but they are great. My mother bought me a second-hand Caterpillar belt 14 years ago in a New York Goodwill. (An odd find considering CAT is an Australian company.) I still wear it. Belts are the quiet soldiers in the war of your wardrobe and deserve a medal, or a polished buckle, for carrying the ensembles of our generation and those past. They are investments that separate the grain, accentuate the style, and complement the hips. They do a lot, but the clothes always seem to get the attention, and there is much more to belts than that. So, let us strip the facts down to their boxer shorts, shall we? 1. They make baggy pants look bearable. Currently, we are…

I grew up with a signed Richard Serra poster in my bedroom. When I was five, my Father and I would sit on gallery floors, marveling at the blocks of darkness over white. A giant heavy prism lying on the floor in a vast white room. It looked like some sort of fallen iron obelisk. Gargantuan white rooms were filled with brash, big and unbuffed metal, like rusting cars in giant lots. Old museums held the buoyant bricks of steel like rocking oil tankers over a shallow ocean. His iron rested on polished concrete, grass, and any matter of surface, nestling mass into the ground like an asphyxiating elbow to the neck. Serra enters one’s life as intermittently as an ambulance passing along the street in the middle of the…

About the author, Sohani Goonetillake: Sohani is an emerging Sri Lankan-Australian writer. She recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Arts majoring in journalism. Currently working in a graduate role at Shameless Media as a multimedia producer, Sohani has a keen interest in any and all books. One of her proudest moments was interviewing bestselling authors Trent Dalton and R.F. Kuang. “Have you ever been frustrated that you’re not fluent in English?” “No, but I think my personality would be better.” I probe Ammi further, “What do you mean?” She takes longer to respond now. “If my English is fluent… I can say anything I want. Now I can manage to explain anything but not one hundred percent.” I know better than to ask any more questions and she…

Ideas can be slippery things; visiting upon our minds when our backs are turned; passing us by while our attention is on other things. The best of them come when we least expect. But sometimes we know just where to go to find them, and these are the spaces where we lie in wait for our next illumination. It’s in the park when the sun comes out, where you bring people together. Surely, it’s a gallery where the paintings are hundreds of years old. You can’t quite comprehend the magnitude of it all. Or when you ride your bike and movement gives you clarity in motion. Or where you have grown through life’s seasons, surrounded by things you have made. It might be above the city, where the gift of…

From the rolling evergreen hills of the Swedish countryside to the towering skyscrapers of New York City, model Vilma Sjöberg’s outer world is just as diverse as her inner landscape. A pottery lover, and an imaginative and compassionate Aquarian, she’s got a coffee-before-anything approach to her mornings, and a decidedly wholesome approach to her nights (books and board games biding her evening hours). Though her quiet disposition might be misconstrued, she’s not one to compare – content to be in a lane entirely of her own. Sjöberg’s good taste extends to the realms of music and literature – delving into books by American poet and writer Eileen Myles, and soundtracking her days with Swedish indie-folk artist Amanda Bergman’s albums. But at the end of the day, Sjöberg is simply an…

PHOTOGRAPHY Olivia Repaci FASHION Hannah Cooper MODELs Signe Veiteberg @Priscillas, Neidy Uraeza @Kult Australia, Bruna Lapinskas @Bella Management, Maya Tuffin @Primary Management HAIR Darren Summors @AP—REPS MAKEUP Tammi Mayhew @Work Agency PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Elise Gellweiler STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Mia Kidis…

Rampen (apm: alien pop music) Einstürzende Neubauten (POTOMAK, 2024) Einstürzende Neubauten are not an easy band to describe, particularly as they continually evolve and redefine their own genre. For the last four decades, they have cemented their role as industrial pioneers and this record sees them traverse a more hypnotic landscape. Whilst I cannot speak German, Blixa Bargeld’s lyricism almost transcends language and captures the mood of the record, allowing the listener to be led into their own interpretation. There are English moments, with tracks like Everything will be fine, which has such a deep, sinister feeling that it seems like a brilliant joke the audience is almost in on. Depending on your company, perhaps not a record for a dinner party, but one that can take you deep into…

DEL SOL Sculpt Pop Del Sol’s Sculpt Pop takes cues from cryotherapy; freeze the Hyaluronic Melt solution and glide it over your face and neck for instantly juicy hydration. Perfect post-swim to de-puff or refresh dehydrated, sleep-deprived, or hungover skin. CHANEL Miroir Double Facettes Kitted with a normal side and a magnifying side, this beauty accessory is flat enough for the tiniest of handbags, but big enough to ensure your lip/lash/liner always looks perfect. TRONQUE Body Contour Tool From trigger point massage to encouraging lymphatic drainage, Tronque’s Body Contour tool is as artful as it is effective. Fashioned from cooling stainless steel, the ergonomic shape can be moved across limbs, while the pointed end targets fascia and sore spots. LANCÔME Teint Idole Ultra Wear Foundation This semi-matte formula combines buildable…

Since its inception, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso has always promised more than meets the eye. Conceptualised originally in 1930 as a solution for shielding the watch dials ofBritish Army officers participating in polo matches in India, the ingenuity of the watch’s reversing case was quickly realised as an opportunity for boundless creativity and ideas beyond its functional capabilities. Throughout the collection’s tenure, we’ve witnessed this unexpected canvas continuously transform, creating a platform for expression that ranges from the most personal of interpretations to once-in-a-lifetime artistic milestones (the Reverso Tribute Enamel Hidden Treasures collection, which celebrated three ‘lost’ artworks of Gustave Courbet, Vincent Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt, still remains front of mind). “True to the spirit of the Reverso collection, the three new creations in the Precious Flowers series tell their own…

You only need to spend a morning walking the streets of Korea’s bustling capital city, Seoul, to quickly see that the reports are true – the place is bursting at the seams with creativity. From the innovative exploration of fashion that is felt and celebrated through street style, to the intersection of art and culture that bleeds into everyday spaces, the energy here is fresh – and truthfully, unmatched. Being my first (but certainly not my last) visit to the growing hotspot travel destination, and with very few preconceptions about what to expect, it became abundantly clear quite early on in my trip why Italian luxury fashion House, Bulgari, had chosen the city as the launchpad for its inaugural initiative, Bulgari Studio. The dynamic program marks the beginning of the…

“You’d die of shame at the thought of showing anyone what you’d written. Somebody somewhere says that ‘the urge to preserve is the basis of all art’. Unaware of this thought, you keep a diary. You keep it not only because it gratifies your urge to sling words around, everyday with impunity, but because without it, you will lose your life, its detail will leak away into the sand and be gone forever.”—Helen Garner Storytelling is the oldest medium in the world. It is a way to chronicle history, collect knowledge and share experiences. Narratives have the power to shape identity and forge a future path of progress. Our words matter more than we know. As a platform for creative minds, RUSSH believes in the power of storytelling and unique…

About the author, Tori Watts: Based in Kaurna Land (Adelaide), Tori Watts is 28 years old and has been writing for half of her life. She records moments of pain and pleasure in privacy as a means for exploring experiences. She worked in various industries, and is currently studying a writing and publishing degree. She has a strong penchant for matters of social justice, for learning and for faith in forces greater than us. “Hope is not the absence of generational painthat is buried in bones and lives in veins andtravels through blood.Hope is passing through landmines without thewant to calculate your steps.Hope is not delicate.Hope has grit.When I exist without it, I am bones.I am veins.I am blood.” Do not ask your children to strive- William Martin Dear Mum,…

“We are living in a time where anything precious about a product other than what you stand for when you’re wearing a label,” rang the voice through my phone screen; a voice belonging to Ellie Chen, founder of L.A.-based ethical fashion label Oddli. Chen had just posted a TikTok video to thousands of her followers, letting them know that her small business had been copied by a seller on Amazon, using the platform to sell near-exact replicas of her clothing – for much, much cheaper prices. Chen is just one in a long line of designers who have had their craft and livelihoods upended by the raging popularity of online ‘dupe culture’ (‘dupe’ being short for ‘duplicate’). Victims range from small designers like NYC-based Mirror Palais and Lirika Matoshi, to…