Writer Julia Zolotova

“Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today” at the Design Museum proved that avant-garde art inevitably infiltrates mainstream culture. Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks appeared on furniture, while René Magritte’s visual paradoxes influenced contemporary product design. The exhibition traced how surrealist principles — unexpected juxtapositions, dream logic, subconscious exploration — now shape everything from fashion to

The Design Museum’s Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition transformed jewelry into kinetic sculpture. Watches with mechanical butterflies, brooches with moving petals, necklaces that seemed to breathe with their wearers — each piece challenged the boundary between ornament and animation. The craftsmanship required for these moving masterpieces boggled the mind. Tiny springs and gears hidden within

The Saatchi Gallery’s Tiffany exhibition revealed the American jewelry house as more than luxury retailer — they’re custodians of craft traditions spanning centuries. From Art Nouveau masterpieces to contemporary collaborations, each piece told stories about cultural aspiration and technical innovation. The highlight was seeing Tiffany’s role in supporting emerging artists alongside established masters. Their commitment

I’m back in London! Two weeks in Russia — the first extended time home since this whole adventure began — and I feel like I’ve been traveling between not just countries, but entire versions of myself. The flight from Sheremetyevo to Heathrow is only four hours, but it might as well span decades. Watching the

The Thames looked like molten pewter this morning, reflecting the kind of grey January sky that makes you appreciate central heating and strong coffee. I’m writing this from a café in Bloomsbury, watching people hurry past in their wool coats and determined expressions, and feeling that peculiar mix of nostalgia and anticipation that comes with