Monocle on Culture
Robert Bound and guests explore what’s new in art, film, books, and media. Expect lively discussions, in-depth interviews, and expert insights.
Latest Episodes
How do you write about fashion?
This week Rob Bound asks writer Charlie Porter, chief fashion critic at the ‘New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman and online style guru Nick Wooster how to write about fashion.
Play it again
We go crate-digging with ‘Times’ rock and pop critic Will Hodgkinson, and Matt Sullivan, co-founder of record label Light in the Attic, who tell us how you find a lost record and then get it rereleased. We also discover a few of our own – from exotica in Portland to…
Font of knowledge
This week we ask, ‘how do you talk about design?’ Answering are ‘Helvetica’ director Gary Hustwit, the writer and Design Museum founder Stephen Bayley and Moma’s director of merchandising. Contains: typefaces, cars, singing shop tills.
Is everyone a curator?
We look into the use – and misuse – of that much-thrown around word “curator”; can a shop window be curated like a fine-art gallery can be? We speak to art experts, writers and delve in to the murky world of PR to try and pick out who the curator…
Picture this
Karen Krizanovich recaps this year’s Oscars, we judge books by their covers at the Book Illustration Competition 2015, discover a video store that’s trying to digitise forgotten VHS tapes, investigate Hanoi’s forgotten ’60s rock’n’roll scene, and there’s live music from Oslo’s Carmen Villain. Plus, we head to Borja in Spain…
And the nominees are…
We meet the editors and designers responsible for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Oscar nominations, in Toronto we see a play that’s been an unlikely hit, and hear from a centre in Portland hoping to boost the city’s arts scene. Plus, we take a tour of ‘Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as…
Groovy Bob
A visit to Pace Gallery’s wonderful new show about notorious 1960s art dealer Robert Fraser, we hear from artist John Gerrard about the physical side of the internet, head to Festival sur le Niger music festival in Mali and Megaphono in Ottawa, and Milwaukee’s Field Report play a live session.
The art of Luc Tuymans and Christian Marclay
Luc Tuymans and Christian Marclay tell us about their new London exhibitions at David Zwirner and White Cube galleries, we recap this year’s Sundance Film Festival, comedian Nick Mohammed introduces us to the protagonist of his new show in Soho, Mr Swallow, and there’s live music from Canada’s Barr Brothers.
Mike Scott’s Modern Blues
We meet the only man in the Spanish village of Sodeto who didn’t win big in the El Gordo lottery – so made a film about it. Plus, we’re joined by The Waterboys’ Mike Scott, head down memory lane to an exhibition about those kid’s literary classics the Ladybird Books,…
Oscar fever
We discuss this year’s Oscar nominations with Karen Krizanovich, writer Gareth Murphy gives us a lesson in the history of the music industry, Mary Rozell, Head of Art Business at Sotheby’s, talks art collecting, Canadian musician Dan Mangan plays a live session, and we head to Portland Oregon to find…
