Weaving Waste, Labour, and Memory in Hui Zhang’s Sculptures

A Chinese artist now based in the UK, she has exhibited in Beijing, London, Edinburgh, and Paris, situating her work within the shared conditions of globalised, consumer culture. This article explores three of her recent works, with insight into process and inspiration from Zhang herself. 

Similarly, Zhang’s memory of her grandmother, who cultivated and wove grasses into household objects, informed her weaving in When Spores Fall— where denim sprouts like fungi from fallen branches, forming structures that hover somewhere between forest floor and bonsai garden. An apt visual metaphor, as fungi feed on what’s discarded, turning decay into growth. Zhang turns what we call waste — materials, time, labour — into art, while holding up consumerism itself as the true rot.

Words by: Carolina Fernandez Bold

In two hours, Allie Sherlock will step out onto London’s Bush Hall stage. The chatter and anticipation of the crowd, already here, reaches us backstage; a glimmer of what’s to come.

Confident, excited, and completely in her element, Allie sits with me on the sofa in her dressing room, offering insight into her experience from street corners to sold-out shows, and reflections on busking, artistry and embracing vulnerability.

Allie Sherlock is no stranger to the spotlight. She began busking on the streets of Cork and Dublin at just eleven years old. By twelve, her undeniable vocal and musical talent landed her an appearance on The Ellen Show and secured her a record deal, following her viral cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Supermarket Flowers”.

Words & Images by: Carolina Fernandez Bold

“Even if there are other people that don’t like it, I can at least own it and go, ‘the people that don’t fuck with it just didn’t quite see my vision,’” he laughs. It’s the kind of self-awareness that only comes after years of handing your work to others and watching it shift shape on the way to the public. Now, what the fans get is what the band intended. No distortion. No compromise.

Interview & Words by: Anya Duncan

Julia Wolf Shows Us There’s Power in Vulnerability

The word pressure conjures up a multitude of emotions. It’s universal; everyone has felt its hand at their neck, gently tightening. A presence lingering just beneath the surface of our dominant feelings. For Julia Wolf, this pulsing sensation quite literally defines her newest album. Pressure is a confessional, an act of emotional exorcism that doubles as genre-defying songwriting.

This isn’t the first time Wolf has had to fight through powerful internalised emotions. Long before her internet-viral track In My Room, she was contending with the pressure to filter her experiences through someone else’s lens, often at the instruction of advisors keen to reframe her narrative. It’s taken time, and courage, for Wolf to unlearn the idea that sadness must be sugar-coated or disguised as empowerment.

Treatment Menu

Born from Breakup Kit, the exhibition Treatment Menu sees co-curators Naz Balkaya and Gigi Surel extend an inquiry into the spaces and rituals that structure experiences of love and loss. Taking up Eric Fromm’s idea that love is an art, a verb, requiring knowledge and effort, the exhibition traces how intimacy is practiced and negotiated in contemporary life.

Exhibiting artists:
Eva Dixon | Ella Fleck | Hoa Dung Clerget | Natalia Janula | Paula Parole | Julia Thompson | Harry Whitelock

Co-Curators: Naz Balkaya & Gigi Surel

6-12 November 2025
30D Great Sutton Street
teaspoonprojects.com/treatmentmenu

Words By: Carolina Fernandez
Images Courtesy: @mmmaqa_studio

In our latest interview, Anya Duncan catches up with the multi-talented Talia Mar to talk all things music, love, and advocacy. Talia opens up about her powerful new single ENEMY. An anthem marking her departure from her record label and reclaiming creative freedom on her own terms.

Talia also reflects on the deeply personal nature of 365, a vulnerable track made even more special with exclusive footage from her wedding woven into the music video. Beyond her music, Talia shares her pride in being an ambassador for The Lobby, a collective pushing for greater visibility and support for women in gaming.

“My thing is adding some kind of storytelling over club music,”

she tells Original Magazine. Anyone attuned to the sound of narrative already knows this to be true of the young artist. Her rebellion, giving dance music heart, history, and a heroine, is what makes Charlotte Plank such a compelling new voice on the UK music scene. Her EP is a shimmering blend of cinematic soundscapes, raw emotion, and fierce intent, tracing her evolution not just as an artist, but as a narrator of modern life, femininity, and club culture.

In a world where on-screen representation still lags behind lived reality, Channel 4’s latest crime drama, Patience, is making strides to bridge the gap. The gritty psychological thriller introduces audiences to Patience Evans, a brilliant but socially misunderstood investigator, played by the fiercely talented Ella Maisy Purvis

‘I’ve been making jewellery since the beginning of lockdown…It started off with just transforming cutlery into jewellery, like spoon rings. I thought that would be really easy.

I thought: “I’m a DIY DYKE, I can make this myself!”

“I did art for A-level and it killed any love I had for painting for a very long time. I was just like ‘how can I be doing this wrong?’ It's just expression. Obviously, there's so many more complications and nuances to that, but at the same time, creativity is creative expression. Creative expression in my mind is creative freedom.”
Nxdiamusic

Interview & Words By” Anya Duncan

Do you ever write something and then hesitate to release it because it feels too raw, or is that kind of openness part of the point for you?

The openness is definitely part of the point for me. There are things I’ve written that felt too exposed at the time, but that feeling doesn’t usually last long. What’s the use otherwise?

“I love blending the organic, live feel of soul and jazz with more synthy, electronic, gritty textures. When it’s done right, it’s candy for the ears. I felt like I was boxing myself in for a while trying to keep those worlds separate. I realise they can coexist beautifully.”

Are you particularly drawn to the French aesthetic in film?

Definitely. In film, in fashion, in music. I’d say the 1960s French New Wave is a massive inspiration to me in all areas. There’s such an undeniable coolness to that era and style of films that you don’t really see anywhere else.

“I wrote this for the messy-souled girls…”

Alt-pop rising star ISOLABELLA returned with her most vulnerable and unapologetic track yet. ‘imNOTaprettygirl’ is a bold, emotionally-charged anthem for anyone who’s ever been told they were too much—too loud, too sensitive, or too pretty to be taken seriously. A powerful follow-up to her flirty, feel-good single ‘Backseat Lover’, this release cuts deeper, unpacking the tension between self-expression and societal expectation.

Interview by Anya Duncan
Images by CLAIRE HODGKINS

Being blessed to be able to create music and be a footballer sounds incredible from the outside, but at any point did this become a challenge for you at all? Were there any stages in your life where you felt you had to choose between the two? Or the two collided with one another?

Oh 100%. There were times where I had to make really tough choices. I remember turning down a football opportunity because I had sessions in LA. Or not being able to make a big game because i was in the studio with Dua Lipa, but I knew I had to give music my all at some point as that had a bigger chance of me being financially stable.

Check out the full interview via YouTube with Editor Michael and Actor & Musician Sheyi Cole on set for our exclusive editorial featuring in Original Magazine | Vol 1

“A lot of people assume that I sit in silence when I do my make up..how psychotic do you think I am?! just sitting there with my tiny little brushes…🤣”

Interview By: Fae Reid

It’s been an explosive year for Wes Nelson. While accolades rarely capture every aspect of a person’s life across eleven months, for this former reality TV star, his list of achievements serve as the perfect reintroduction.

Among his accomplishments: topping the UK Top 40 charts with his single in collaboration with Craig David, returning to the Love Island villa with Craig to perform Abracadabra, signing his record label to Sony Music, and touring across Europe, the UK, and Ireland.

“I have a playlist for the crowd outside, but I still need to make one for me. I usually listen to CMAT before I perform and Glen Campbell. I walk on stage to The Rhinestone Cowboy, but I love listening to Southern Nights, Gentle on My Mind, and Fleetwood Mac. I love loads of old sixties tunes before I go on stage, like Que Sera, Sera. I’ve got it tattooed on my wrist in my papa’s handwriting…”

In this interview, Original Magazine speaks with the 'Internets Stepmum' Cherie DeVille who will be giving an insight to the world of adult entertainment.

"The pros include creative freedom, financial independence, and a supportive community. The cons are the stigma, privacy issues, and potential exploitation...."

Photographer: @bloom_creative_studio
Model: @felixmufti

’Bryony Jade is a freelance photographer based in Liverpool, UK. They specialise in portraiture and fashion photography…’

’Felix Mufti is a Scouse activist, performer, writer, chaos-causer, who loves to tell stories through rhythms n’rap inspired spoken word…”

Photographer/ CD: Laura Braithwaite @seekhappydays

MUA: Roo (Season 5 of Glow up) @nectaroon

Stylist: Imogen Porter @tigsnoop

“…She placed the bouquet on the desk opposite his cot; always facing him, commanding and ever-present. Though a nice sentiment, a combination of morphine and confusion brought Grandpa the idea that a woman in red was always in the corner facing him…”

By Zoe Montgomery

Carefully dissecting and observing the potential of the Mushroom's ability to break down the resin coating on the surface of darkroom papers such as Ilford and Foma, once the paper turns to smaller particles and the Mushrooms begin to die…

So, how do you fund your own project without any of this? Well, you guest it, it comes from your own back pocket and no matter how much you research (if you have done the first part that is) it will almost always cost you more to fund your project than original planned.

Ray Chu: I think within this industry, of course everyone loves to express themselves and all aspects of their character. Fashion can be cold in a way, so I hope that when we are able to show who we are and support each other more in our community, that brings more to what fashion can be.

As the age old saying goes, 'a man's home is his castle,' but in our collaborative editorial series crafted exclusively by a team of talented women, we find it imperative to redefine this notion.

Call it a distraction or disempowerment keeping us unsatisfied with our appearance means women are subordinate to men

“…Living in their own hot pink hue, recent drama graduates come fringe fanatics, Ding for Disco, have seized every opportunity in their sights…”

“Max Edward is a 23 year old, London based illustrator. His work is a maximalist and indulgent hyper-feminine approach to fashion and portraiture illustration, with a focus on queer culture and inclusivity”

The horrors of war are resolutely put out of the brackets of this world without men. It is a gynaeceum, majestic, beautiful and frightening. Nineteen women of different ages wander in a string through the endless desert, re-mastering or forever saying goodbye to the space reminiscent of the fields of past battles.

By Lilia Li-Mi-Yan and Katherina Sadovsky

Editorial
What we would have worn to the #megala

Photography: @tallguyconnor
Design: @casarelia

I always wanted to make art since I was a child, but I’ve been interested in many things over the years from music to fashion, film and photography. The work I make now has been a natural progression of that curiosity, and it’s a great way of combining those different mediums into one creative output.

“Geyujing Shen was born in a small city in Zhejiang, China,…but people are mostly oblivious to their presence - just as women are experiencing in China, and with the status of queer, the way trees are treated deepens Geyujing's anxiety about identity, presence, and visibility…” By Geyujing Shen

Time, as a phenomenon, is profoundly intriguing, it invites us into a deeper reflection - taking shape as an abstraction, and then morphing into a framework used to comprehend the intricacies of the human experience.

Memories, and it’s labyrinthine relationship with time, can alter our perceptions...

Words & Interview by: Rebecca Jones

“All designers are inventors.”

This was one of the very first things Samantha Siu told me when we met. During her interview with Original Magazine, Siu shared her belief that the fashion world is filled with innovators and scientists. However, after speaking with her about her latest body of work, I’m certain that few are as intentional in their inventiveness as the New York-based jewellery designer.