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SUMMER 2014 NO. 41 Keeping you in touch with Goldsmiths

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Me and Mrs. Hemingway Naomi Wood on her second novel Gallery at Goldsmiths Winning design unveiled

From Iran to the railway arches of Camberwell In conversation with Camila Batmanghelidjh

Patrick Loughrey Warden, Goldsmiths, University of London

We have recently seen our alumni carry on the Goldsmiths tradition of reinventing, reinvigorating and remastering the world around us. Laure Prouvost became the seventh member of our community to win the Turner Prize and another alumnus who shares that same honour, Steve McQueen, set a new record by becoming the first black director to win a Best Picture Oscar for his film, 12 Years A Slave.

Katy B topped the UK album charts with her latest album, Little Red and James Blake won the coveted Mercury Prize. More recently, 20,000 Days On Earth, a film by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (page 21) was one of the highlights at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and we expect further accolades to follow. These are just some of the reasons why Goldsmiths remains such an exciting place to be.

In April, we took Goldsmiths on the road and I met many of you in person at gatherings in Athens, Berlin, New York and São Paulo. On Saturday 8 November, we are bringing #GoldsmithsReunite home to give you the opportunity to reconnect with us and each other.

Those who join us will see that we are in the midst of our biggest campus renewal in 50 years. A number of key projects have already begun, including the renovation of the Richard Hoggart Building on Lewisham Way and the new music studios at 286 New Cross Road which provide a creative space for research, performance and recording. Other developments in the pipeline include the creation of a new art gallery on campus, using the water tanks in the former Laurie Grove Baths (pages 14 and 15).

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Editor Mary Ivers Design zoebather.co.uk Photography Ivan Coleman (Pages 8-11, front and back cover) justincmcintosh.com (Israeli West Bank Barrier – page 3) Michael Tan (Journey of a Flip Flop – page 5) Flickr: Jsome1 (guitar – page 5) Flickr: arlingtonva Goldlink

(Hands – page 5) Victoria Will (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard – page 21) sunypress.edu (Mary Barnard: American Imagist – page 19) Will Brooker (Steve McQueen – page 24) Development & Alumni Office Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London, SE14 6NW alumni@gold.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7919 7253

The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the writers concerned and not necessarily of Goldsmiths.

Goldlink is printed on paper accredited by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

Update your details online at www.gold.ac.uk/alumni/update Like us on Facebook GoldsmithsAlumni Follow us on Twitter @GoldAlumni

On the cover Camila Batmanghelidjh, 2014

By Ivan Coleman — see page 8

IN THIS ISSUE

02 Goldsmiths Reunite Alumni event series launched 03 News 06 In Memoriam Richard Hoggart, 1918-2014 08 Interview Camila Batmanghelidjh 12 Showcase Birute Bikelyte 14 Gallery at Goldsmiths Designs unveiled 16 Me and Mrs. Hemingway Naomi Wood on her second novel 19 Books 20 3x3 21 Life After 22 Gold Stories 24 Parting Shot Summer 2014 No.41

2 News

GOLDSMITHS REUNITE

Since April, Goldsmiths has been on the road, reuniting with our international alumni community and launching a new Alumni Ambassador Progamme.

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oldsmiths has been reuniting with alumni via a series of international events taking place since April. The Warden, Patrick Loughrey, launched the ‘Goldsmiths Reunite’ series in Athens on Friday 4 April and events have subsequently been held in Berlin, New York and São Paulo.

Each event celebrates the Goldsmiths community and the series has reunited over 250 alumni so far. In Berlin, alumni heard a short lecture by Professor

Angela McRobbie on the ‘new culture economy’, drawing on her forthcoming book which looks at the creative economy in London and Berlin.

One of the guests attending in Berlin was Sarnath Banerjee, a graphic novelist who studied MA in Photography: The Image and Electronic Arts. “True to the Goldsmiths spirit the event also brought interdisciplinary crossfertilisation of ideas; sociologist speaking to printmakers, investigative journalists speaking to cartoonists.”

In New York, alumni heard from Naomi Wood, acclaimed author of Mrs. Hemingway and Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature, who talked about her new book and the trials and tribulations of uncovering the secret life of Ernest Hemingway – see page 16. The next scheduled event in the series will reunite alumni in the UK, taking place on Saturday 8 November on campus.

Your connection to Goldsmiths is ongoing.

To build on some of the existing alumni activities taking place internationally, and identify candidates interested in developing new ways to engage with their local alumni communities, Goldsmiths has also launched an Alumni Ambassador Programme to coincide with each of the events.

Mary Ivers, Alumni Relations Manager, said: “Your connection to Goldsmiths is ongoing and this is why we have launched this new Ambassador Programme. Wherever you are, we want to make sure that you remain connected with us, with your former classmates, and know about all of the brilliant things that go on at Goldsmiths.”

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3 NEWS

TURNER PRIZE 2013

OSCAR-WINNING THE ALUMNUS ARCHITECTURE OF VIOLENCE

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lumna Laure Prouvost was awarded the 2013 Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious arts award, for her film piece Wantee, which takes the audience in search of her fictional grandfather. The piece was commissioned by Grizedale Arts and Tate for inclusion in a Kurt Schwitters retrospective at Tate Britain. The panel said the film, which played in a room styled like a tea party, was “outstanding for its complex and courageous combination of images and objects in a deeply atmospheric environment.” In February, Laure went on to stage her first solo museum exhibition in the United States at the New Museum, titled ‘For Forgetting’. Goldsmiths’ reputation in the British arts scene is unmatched, with seven winners of the Turner Prize and 24 shortlisted artists also hailing from the University.

teve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave won the coveted Best Picture Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards. It’s the first time a black director’s film has won the award. The film, which has been described by The New Yorker as “easily the greatest film ever made about American slavery,” also won a BAFTA for Best Film, and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture. It tells the incredible true story of Solomon Northup, a free man who was abducted and sold into slavery. McQueen dedicated the award to the 21 million people still enduring slavery around the world. “Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live,” he said.

“This is the legacy of Solomon Northup.“ McQueen made his first films at Goldsmiths while studying the BA Fine Art course. In 1999, six years after graduating, he won the Turner Prize.

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oldsmiths academic Eyal Weizman will be the protagonist in a new documentary, The Architecture of Violence.

Eyal is an architect, Professor of Visual Cultures and also Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths.

Since 2011 he has directed the European Research Council-funded project, Forensic Architecture – on the place of architecture in international humanitarian law.

The documentary follows Eyal as he investigates the Israeli use of architecture in their occupation of Palestine. Travelling across the roads and settlements of the West Bank, and following the Separation Wall, he begins to understand and explore the role that architecture plays in modern urban warfare.

The film was directed by alumna Ana Naomi de Sousa (MA in Journalism, 2009).

Summer 2014 No.41

4 News NEWS

STUDENT EXPERIENCE SURVEY

BURSARIES AND SCHOLARSHIPS

CIJ MOVES TO GOLDSMITHS

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he Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2014 ranked Goldsmiths 11th for ‘good library and library opening hours’ and 18th for ‘helpful/ interested staff’. The survey, which took opinions from 14,300 students across 111 institutions, also ranked Goldsmiths 17th for ‘fair workload’, 21st for ‘tuition in small groups’ and 29th for ‘good personal relationships with teaching staff’.

Goldsmiths was ranked first out of all London universities across several categories including ‘high quality staff’, ‘helpful/interested staff’, ‘well-structured courses’, ‘good personal relationships with staff’ and ‘tuition in small groups’.

The Goldsmiths Library and its facilities was ranked second out of all London university libraries and just outside the top 10 nationally.

Alumni can join the library for free as a reference user or can borrow for a small fee.

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oldsmiths has announced £1.5 million worth of scholarships and bursaries to support over 200 students with tuition fees and living costs. Among the bursaries are full fee waivers for ten students living in Lewisham and The Mayor’s Award, set up by Lewisham Council in memory of those who died in the New Cross Fire. Sandra Ruddock lost her husband Paul and sister-in-law Yvonne in the New Cross Fire in 1981. She said: “There were many children who died in the fire who never got the chance to go to university. It gives children from underprivileged backgrounds that wish.” Cllr Damien Egan, added: “The Mayor’s Award give four local young people an opportunity to pursue their further education. The number of alumni of this award is growing and many have gone on to achieve great things.”

he Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) will now be housed in Goldsmiths’ Department of Media and Communications, one of the UK’s leading departments in media practice and research, and currently rated among the top departments in the country for research excellence. Founded in 2003, the CIJ supports and promotes critical reporting and journalism in defence of public interest. A registered charity, it provides training and resources for journalists, non-governmental organisations and the public, with particular support for those working where freedom of the press is under threat. Goldsmiths will host the CIJ’s summer school, a renowned training conference bringing together journalists from across the world, as well as practical hands-on workshops, public talks and film-screenings for the public, students and media practitioners.

5 NEWS

MUSIC AND REHABILITATION

JOURNEY OF A FLIP FLOP

CLEANSING PREJUDICE

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oldsmiths researchers found that playing a musical instrument could help the rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The study saw stroke survivors improve their spatial awareness after four sessions and daily homework playing scales and melodies on chime bars with a music therapist. A ‘music intervention’ programme was implemented with people recovering from ‘neglect’, which is when damage to one side of the brain is sustained following a stroke causing spatial awareness problems on the opposite side of the patient’s body. Dr Lauren Stewart, from the Department of Psychology said: “It would be great to invite more patients to participate in future studies, as well as see if the music intervention has the capacity to translate to improvements in everyday tasks.”

aroline Knowles from the Department of Sociology recently published her book Flip-Flop, which investigates the life of a flip flop from the oil fields of Kuwait to the rubbish heaps of Ethiopia. Through this unique lens, Caroline takes a ground-level view of the lives and places of globalisation’s back roads, providing new insights that challenge contemporary accounts of globalisation. Caroline began in the oil rich nation of Kuwait and from there she followed the flip flop trail to South Korea, where she succeeded in gaining access to petrochemical plants in Daesan.

The flip flop’s journey took her to the epicentre of plastic production in Fuzhou in China, and it ended in Ethiopia, on the feet of the 84 million people who live there, and inevitably on the rubbish heap.

xperiments undertaken by researchers at Goldsmiths and ISCTE-CIS in Lisbon have found that people feel the need to physically cleanse after imagining contact with gay men. The studies, which involved more than 200 participants, found this to be particularly true for people who deemed themselves politically conservative. Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, from the Department of Psychology, said: “Labelling people as impure is a culturally universal way of expressing prejudice. We undertook four studies with a variety of different people to investigate whether this idea of contamination and prejudice applied to homosexuals as a social group. And we found that all studies demonstrated that prejudice was expressed through the desire to cleanse oneself after only an imagined contact with homosexuals.”

Summer 2014 No.41

6 In Memoriam

IN MEMORIAM RICHARD HOGGART, 1918-2014 The leading cultural commentator and former Goldsmiths Warden, best known for his seminal book The Uses of Literacy, passed away earlier this year after a long illness.

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ichard Hoggart was the Warden of Goldsmiths between 1976 and 1984. Born in Leeds in 1918, Hoggart’s seminal book, The Uses of Literacy, was published in 1957 and had an enormous impact on academic conceptions of mass media and cultural change.

Hoggart was one of the leading cultural commentators of the last sixty years. He was the first literary critic to take the working class seriously and played a critical role in the founding of Cultural Studies and in fundamental changes to how English and Media were studied. All three subject areas now thrive at Goldsmiths, and enjoy a global reputation.

Writing about his work in his autobiography, he said: “The main currents of my interests have Goldlink

been: the right of wider access to higher education, the need for wider access also to the arts as the most scrupulous explorations we can make of our personalities and relationships, and of the nature of our societies; and, as a support to all this, the best uses of mass communications.”

Speaking at the Hoggart Lecture in February, Goldsmiths Warden Patrick Loughrey said Hoggart’s presence was still strongly felt at the institution: “Hoggart changed the landscape of cultural studies, not only in Britain but also across the world, and of course he changed the world in many respects, too.

“He meant a great deal to us at Goldsmiths, because surely at no other place is his legacy

so manifested. Not only on a professional or academic level, but on a personal level too.

“Our newly renovated Richard Hoggart Building is a real tribute to him and a reminder of the great contribution he made to shaping and furthering our great College, and making us known today as a place of daring, of challenge, of creativity and of pioneers.

“But perhaps the most illustrating example of the heritage Hoggart has left can be seen in our students and their learning experience here. I spoke to a graduate the other day and she told me that The Uses of Literacy was the first text she studied here at Goldsmiths.

She described him as an ‘academic popstar’ – a choice of word perhaps influenced by Hoggart’s extensive work on popular culture.

“So many of our subjects are infused by Hoggart’s thinking - media, sociology, culture and literature. For Hoggart, students were the most important thing.

And that is why it is such a joy to follow the journeys of our students who go out and change the world for the better, having been inspired by his work.”

Professor of Communications and Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, James Curran said: “On a personal level, Richard Hoggart was a deeply engaging man – family-centred, egalitarian and witty. He also achieved most of the things he set out to do at Goldsmiths, including expanding popular access to higher education, and creating a world famous department in an academic subject, media and cultural studies, that he had founded.”

Hoggart died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday 10 April 2014 after fighting a long illness.

His death follows that of his son, Simon Hoggart, in January. His wife of 72 years, Mary, passed away in May. He is survived by son Paul and daughter Nicola.

7 Below: Richard Hoggart

by Peter Cresswell Oil on canvas 75 x 60 cm

Summer 2014 No.41

8 Feature

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9 Kids Company has come a long way since its inception in 1996. Do you think that the problems that you identified then are still present now?

I’ve noticed that things have got worse for children and families, on two fronts. Services are more functional and depleted. They’ve become much more referring agencies or short-term toolbox strategies.

Simultaneously, social capital around these families has really diminished.

When I started in 1996 in the railway arches, I was sure that the drug dealer had the firearm and the kids had the knives. Now, 14- and 15-year-olds are carrying firearms. The risks have escalated.

Kevin Jones, Head of Therapeutic Studies, recently met Camila Batmanghelidjh to talk about her time at Goldsmiths, Kids Company and its current campaign – ‘See the Child.

Change the System’.

FROM IRAN TO THE RAILWAY ARCHES OF CAMBERWELL

How did you get to the railway arches of Camberwell?

I was born into a very wealthy Iranian family during the time of the Shah, and I had three key influences. My great uncle was a general, in charge of all the armed forces. Every cell of the man was self-discipline and strategy. My father’s father was a self-made millionaire at 21. My mother’s father was an understated, delicate male who was a paediatrician and a vocational personality. He fascinated me the most: I thought he had a beauty and a grace that was extraordinary. I attributed that to his capacity to serve.

As a child I remember my uncles all getting around a table to discuss building the biggest ski resort in the world and that’s what they did. My sense of childhood was you just had to think of an idea, and why not?

I was nine when I told my mother, “I want to devote my life to childhood and open an orphanage.”

I wrote the skeleton model for Kids Company when I was 14 and at boarding school.

Another part of your early experience was having to leave Iran because of the revolution, wasn’t it?

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n 1996, Camila Batmanghelidjh, a former Goldsmiths Foundation Art Therapy student, founded Kids Company in six converted railway arches in Camberwell. The organisation provides practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable innercity children across London and Bristol. Each year their services reach 36,000 children and young people, and provide intensive support for over 18,000.

Camila has won countless awards for her accomplishments, including Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Centre of Social Justice and an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths.

My father was one of the wealthiest men in Iran and because he’d made his money legitimately, he didn’t run away. When the Supreme Leader came into the country, he was suddenly imprisoned and I was left at Sherborne School for Girls with no money. The Bank Manager emptied my father’s bank account to pay the school fees, and I started working in nurseries during the holidays. I had to get political asylum, and I’ve kept it because I feel that asylum seekers and people who come from other countries contribute an enormous amount to this country, and yet there is a very negative, distorted narrative around this.

How did your dyslexia affect your education at the time?

The reason I have severe dyslexia, and other health difficulties to go with it, is because I was born very premature; I was under one kilogramme, and they didn’t put me in an incubator. I’ve got massive areas Summer 2014 No.41

10 Feature This spread: Details from the Kids Company’s office

of my brain that don’t work. Stairs look flat. I can’t use a computer because it gives me seizures. I can’t use keyboards. I can’t text. I can’t drive.

At school I grew frustrated because I couldn’t technically keep up and they were teaching me through my disability. What I wanted to find out was, “What did Jean-Paul Sartre say?”, but no one was talking to me about Jean-Paul Sartre!

I’d applied to study at Bristol, and even though the professors really wanted me, the Senate wouldn’t let me in because I couldn’t pass English and Maths.

Warwick looked at my art portfolio and let me in on an unconditional. I got a First Class degree, but it’s all dictated on tape. It was like, “Finally, someone’s looking at me through an ability rather than through a disability.”

What was it about the fit of Goldsmiths that you were attracted to?

Everyone said to me at the time, “the Goldsmiths Art Therapy programme is the best.” I’d arrived at it in my early 20s and there were some really mindmessing characters on that course, drawing really strange things! I’d be sitting there thinking, “Bloody hell, what’s he doing?” Sally Skaife was my tutor, and she calmly contained the whole group. I learnt a lot at Goldsmiths and loved it. My intention was always to take a diverse therapeutic portfolio and adapt it all; I was never going to be a psychotherapist in a room.

Did you get a sense of the Art Therapy course being plugged into the rest of Goldsmiths?

I’ve always had enormous respect for Goldsmiths because I’ve really enjoyed having their students on placement at Kids Company. At the same time, I was very aware of the Art Department. We had this dual relationship where Damien [Hirst] and all those people were helping us. It’s very interesting that Damien is one of Kids Company’s main supporters.

He’s allowed us to be free in the work we’re doing and I love talking to him. He’s very straightforward, and secretly passionate about children.

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My sense of childhood was you just had to think of an idea, and why not?

What’s your approach for demonstrating the effectiveness of what you are doing?

When I first started in the railway arches, I noticed that the disturbed behaviours of the children at Kids Company were very similar. I used to go home at night and think, “Why are they all the same?” I gathered about 500 clinical papers from across the world, read them all and then realised that if all those scientists had worked together, collectively, they would have had the clinical and intellectual property to explain the behaviour of these kids.

I turned up at the Royal Society of Medicine, asked to see the boss and begged him to put a group of scientists together. We ended up with the best scientists in England and a couple from the States.

I had interviewed 400 children in great detail, and presented what they’d told me about their lives. I described some of the kids’ characteristics, and each of the scientists took a bit of this research.

The upshot of it is that yes, these kids can’t read facial cues appropriately, they can’t tolerate a neutral face, punishment doesn’t work and the error networks of their brain go into super drive. They are frightened and hyper-vigilant. But after 15 months of being with Kids Company, that brain functioning changes quite

dramatically. This is the research that’s about to be published.

Are you able to share any other projects you have in mind for Kids Company?

So, here’s the revolution. After 30 years of being on the streets, I’ve had professionals see me privately, and say that the child mental health and children’s social services are at breaking point. I brought the Centre for Social Justice in, and for the past two years they’ve been looking at our children’s files, interviewing them and then going more widely, interviewing professionals nationwide. They’ve just produced a report that actually calls for a royal commission. We believe that there have been too many enquiries, and that the time has come to do the job.

We want to put together a task force to redesign children’s social care and to do the economic and evaluation modelling for it so that we can have a system that acknowledges the sheer scale of the problem and has capacity to meet the challenge. Historically, politicians haven’t dealt with these issues because the kids don’t vote. We’re asking the public to vote for change – the campaign is called ‘See the Child. Change the System’. www.seethechild.org Summer 2014 No.41

12 Showcase

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13 Birute Bikelyte BA Design, 2014

Healing Soviet trauma by Design graduate Birute aims to change the mindset of post-communist countries through the power of fiction.

The Soviet Union wanted to radically change society to instigate equality among its people, but this was an illusion that ultimately hindered its people’s ability to adapt to capitalism. This illusion ended when the Soviet Union collapsed, but its people did not change. Birute escaped this illusion when she left Lithuania, and now has a unique perspective – seeing the problems of post-communist countries from the outside.

She explains: “I have detected that the headlong transition from communism to capitalism has created a defective system, so I act as a strategist of ideology who develops the timeline of a better past. Parts of this fictional master plan become educational tools for changing the Soviet mindset.” birutebi.com Healing Soviet Trauma was exhibited at the 2014 BA Design degree show. Goldsmiths is proud to present an eclectic programme of exhibitions, shows and performances that champion our exciting student work. For more examples, visit: www.gold.ac.uk/ degree-shows

Summer 2014 No.41

14 Feature

G A L L E R Y AT GOLDSMITHS Scheduled to open in 2016, Sir Antony Gormley hails gallery as “an important moment in the development of Goldsmiths.”

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ver the last 25 years, Goldsmiths graduates have been instrumental in turning contemporary art into one of the most dynamic art forms in British culture, with seven Turner Prize winners and 24 shortlisted Turner Prize artists coming from Goldsmiths.

A gallery will solidify this position by providing a public centre of artistic excellence that will bring the local community and those further afield onto the campus to see the most exciting work from the visual art world.

Richard Noble, Head of the Department of Art, commented: “As a University, Goldsmiths has been at the forefront of innovative art and culture in Britain for more than a century, and we plan to remain there for centuries to come.”

The gallery will offer a world-class programme of exhibitions, commissions, residencies and projects throughout the year. It will also give new use to a Grade-II listed, derelict Victorian-era water tank which once provided water to the Laurie Grove Baths.

In March 2014 we launched a competition for Goldlink

architects to register their interest in the project to build an art gallery at Goldsmiths, and the response was overwhelming. More than 80 firms submitted detailed expressions of interest and, after shortlisting the entries to six firms, the design by Assemble was chosen by a panel that included architect Sir David Chipperfield and artist Sir Antony Gormley.

Cutting-edge young architecture collective Assemble were chosen for their design which will incorporate the black steel water tanks originally used for the Laurie Grove Baths, directly opposite the Ben Pimlott Building on Goldsmiths’ campus.

The design will expose the hidden character of the Laurie Grove bath tanks and create a unique opportunity to welcome the public to Goldsmiths, enabling them to experience both the tanks and the existing building in new and exciting ways.

Paloma Strelitz and Adam Willis from Assemble commented: “We are very excited that Assemble has been chosen to design a public gallery for Goldsmiths – a project that resonates with our studio’s interests and ethos.

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This will become a resource for the university and for London.

“We envisage the gallery becoming a new centre for the arts in South London, and are honoured to contribute to an institution that is further promoting its identity as an inspirational source of creativity for students, practitioners and the public.

“The Victorian bathhouse at Laurie Grove offers a series of extraordinary found spaces. The cast iron water tanks have a powerful materiality which will be preserved and amplified, whilst new top-lit galleries will provide a rich spatial counter-point in an ensemble offering unique opportunities for the display of art.”

The new gallery, which is due to open to the public in autumn 2016, will cost £1.8m to build. It will be entirely funded by external donations, a significant

part of this by an auction of artwork donated by Goldsmiths’ illustrious alumni to take place at Christie’s in February 2015.

Alumnus Sir Antony Gormley commented: “Goldsmiths remains one of the liveliest, most challenging and ambitious of Britain’s universities – its art department is blessed by being part of a university campus with many allied disciplines, engaged in research that has direct relevance for the evolution of the visual culture of our time.

“The arrival of a gallery is an important moment in the development of Goldsmiths. This will become a resource for the university and for London: a place where students and the wider public can experience and test-drive new forms of art as well as see relevant examples of art from the past, ancient and modern.

“It will be a place where curators can exercise their skills, artists both international and from the College can make, exhibit and discuss their work and where all the ways in which Goldsmiths extends our understanding of the culture of our time can be shared with a curious public.”

Summer 2014 No.41

16 #GoldsmithsReunite

ME & MRS. HEMINGWAY

Naomi Wood is a part-time Lecturer on the BA English & Creative Writing and the PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths. Her second novel Mrs. Hemingway was published earlier this year

by Picador, and by Penguin in the US. Goldlink

17 she could stop by here if she wants – it would be a swell joke on tout le monde if you + Fife + I spent the summer at Juan-Les-Pins…” Swell joke indeed. No-one was laughing that summer, a summer Zelda Fitzgerald described as “a carnival of impending disaster.” In A Moveable Feast, Ernest exonerates himself for the ménage-à-trois of Pauline, Hadley and him, writing: “To truly love two women at the same time, truly love them, is the most destructive and terrible thing that can happen to a man.” Worse for the women, I’d say.

Pauline and Ernest were married in 1927. She described the years spent with Ernest, and their two sons Patrick and Gregory, as ones of “unbelievable happiness and final sorrow.” But in following Ernest around the world, to the bullfights, to safaris in Africa, trying to keep him satisfied, she ignored her husband’s

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etween each of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives, whom he married over four decades, the author spent roughly seven and a half months single.

I should probably say unwed rather than single – since he’d always lined up a mistress to take his wife’s place. In which case, the number of days he spent alone between wives was a big round zero.

How was it that macho Ernest Hemingway – game-hunter, explorer, writer, boxer, soldier, bullfighter – couldn’t spend a night on his own?

Perhaps it was the particular lure of each woman.

In the biographies, Hadley Richardson, whom he married in 1921, is always characterised by her warmth and charm. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway gives us a lovely portrait of their life together in Jazz-Age Paris: “We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.”

Hadley’s letters from the time show her enormous love for Ernest as well as her belief in his nascent writing talent: “I’m… so violently for you as a person and a writer and a lover I can’t put it down on paper.” Her letters are so supportive that occasionally they head toward self-effacement; it is almost always Ernest’s desires that are put ahead of her own.

Biographers also characterise Hadley as strangely passive, as Pauline Pfeiffer (mistress no.1 and wife no.2) encroached upon the scene in 1925. Pauline wrote to Hadley: “I feel like he should be warned that I’m going to cling to him like a millstone and old moss and winter ivy.” Letters like these were not uncommon from Pauline. It should have given Hadley the creeps.

Instead, even while Hadley knew they were conducting their private affair, she invited Pauline (“Fife”) on holiday with them in 1926: “I told her

It is difficult to think of many modern women putting up with Ernest’s escapades.

Opposite: Ernest Hemingway at the Finca Vigia, Cuba 1946

Above: Ernest and Mary Hemingway on safari, 1953-54

Summer 2014 No.41

18 #GoldsmithsReunite Clockwise from right: Ernest with Martha, with Hadley and Jack (their son), and with Pauline in Key West

own advice from his novel To Have and Have Not: “The better you treat a man and the more you show you love him, the quicker he gets tired of you.”

Almost a decade on from their marriage in Paris, Ernest met Martha Gellhorn in Key West in 1936.

Their affair took place during the Spanish Civil War, where Ernest and Martha Gellhorn (mistress no.2 and wife no.3) had their affair with thrilling intimacy, visiting the Front by day, and bedding down with each other at night.

Appeasement got Hadley nowhere. Pauline, too, chose to turn a blind eye to Ernest’s extramarital affairs, but this stratagem failed to starve the affair of its excitement. At the end of their marriage, Pauline wrote to Ernest: “Our plans would be quite simple if our lives were not so complicated and you were, say, a brick layer instead of a woman layer and a writer.”

They divorced in 1940. Less than two weeks later, he married Martha.

Martha Gellhorn, war reporter and novelist, did not have to put up with another mistress. As Martha longed to be at the Front during the Second World War, Ernest’s love for her only increased: “I am just gnawing sick dumb lonely for you,” he wrote, “I love you like a caribou loves mud, like Mr Roosevelt loves his place in history, like the sea loves the beach and rolls on it all the time.”

While Martha was off at war, Ernest arrived Goldlink

in London in 1944, knowing in all likelihood that his restless wife was going to leave him – a first for Ernest. Lucky for Hemingway, a woman called Mary Welsh appeared at the Dorchester. A war reporter, like Martha, and just as confident and funny, she was however, a little more willing to let Ernest’s moods swing without comment or opprobrium. Ernest divorced Martha on the grounds of “desertion” in 1945.

Mary and Ernest remained married until his death, from 1946 to 1961, and he was married to her for the longest out of all of his wives. The most formidable mistress Mary had to contend with was booze itself. The author’s alcoholism became so bad in the late fifties that if there was nothing left in the house he’d drink mouthwash.

It is difficult to think of many modern women putting up with Ernest’s escapades. Just as those animals he shot on safari have become rare beasts, so have the women willing to turn a blind eye to the mistresses. Not that I’m complaining. These marriages made à trois were, of course, wonderful material for a novel about all four women who all – some not for very long – got to call themselves Mrs. Hemingway.

This article is based on a talk from the ‘Goldsmiths Reunite’’ event series. Each event is designed to celebrate our global community of alumni and showcase the very best scholarship at Goldsmiths. www.gold.ac.uk/reunite

19 BOOKS

PUREFINDER Ben Gwalchmai The debut novel by alumnus Ben Gwalchmai (BA English and Drama, 2008) is a Gothic-horror historical thriller that follows Purefoy, a man blamed for the death of a child, and Murphy, his enigmatic capturer. Purefinder is an exploration of London, loss, paternity, fraternity and politics in the hell that is London in 1858 and the early 21st century.

SO LONG! GODSPEED! SO LONG! Nicholas Flower This is the debut collection of stories by Nicholas Flower (BA Media & Modern Literature 2006). These are dense tales of little times and quiet voices given megaphones, of lines smeared between truths and good, life and selves, dissecting the tedium of the twenty-first century and laying bare the atrophied heart of long-gone dreams, the tears in the dark wept by a hopeless failing Britain.

THE DEATH OF THE POET N Quentin Woolf When John Knox fell in love with Rachel McAllistair, he didn’t realise how it would change his life forever.

A daringly honest story about being in thrall to someone, The Death of the Poet by alumnus N Quentin Woolf (BA English, 2008), is an exploration of violence and what it means to be a man in the modern world, and how early promises can forever change your life.

A THOUSAND RAINBOWS Lia Chavez Disorienting, unsettling, and strangely beautiful, the photography monograph, A Thousand Rainbows by alumna Lia Chavez (MA Photography and Urban Cultures, 2005), explores performance-generated imagery and the nature of interpersonal, material and spiritual relationships through the manipulation of light.

This volume reproduces 22 images from the series and uncovers the surreal parallels between heavenly bodies and earthly ones.

EAT MY HEART OUT Zoe Pilger Eat My Heart Out, the debut novel by Goldsmiths alumna and PhD candidate Zoe Pilger (MA Comparative Literary Studies, 2010), is about Ann-Marie, a 23-year-old Londoner whose life has collapsed and believes love is the answer to her problems, until she meets legendary feminist Stephanie Haight who is convinced that if she can save Ann-Marie, she’ll rescue an entire generation from the curse of ironic detachment.

MARY BARNARD: AMERICAN IMAGIST Sarah Barnsley Mary Barnard – American Imagist has its origin in the PhD thesis of alumna, Sarah Barnsley. The first book on Barnard, and the first to draw on the Barnard archives at Yale’s Beinecke Library, it uncovers a new chapter in the story of American modernist poetry and examines Barnard’s poetry and poetics in the light of her plentiful correspondence with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and others. Sarah teaches at Goldsmiths.

Summer 2014 No.41

20 Retrospectives

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The Department of Educational Studies will be hosting a special event to celebrate its 110th anniversary on Friday 7 November 2014. To stay informed, please ensure that the alumni office has your current email address.

FRANCES WALSH (PGCE, 1993). Frances is a visual artist who, following a successful career in education, recently graduated from the MA in Fine Art at Falmouth University. Frances now works in the Learning team at Tate St Ives.

BOB BURSTOW (BEd Biology and Education, 1973).

Bob began his career as a Teacher of Secondary Science and was a Deputy Head until 2007. He is now a Senior Lecturer at King’s College, London.

CLAIRE BAIGENT (BA Education, Culture and Society, 2010 and PGCE, 2011). Claire is a previous recipient of the Mayor’s New Cross Award. Specialising in early years education, she now teaches Reception in Lewisham.

My abiding memory from my time at Goldsmiths is...

The place you would be most likely to find me was…

If there is one thing that Goldsmiths taught me…

FW: Engaging with a critically aware staff and student body and benefiting from the lively art education context. Making the most of the resources Goldsmiths had to offer. One of the best experiences was firing raku in an outdoor kiln – we were able to undertake practical skills-based sessions as well as more pedagogical theory.

FW: The place you would be most likely to find me was in the library at Goldsmiths or down the road, in the Art Department of Deptford Green School which was where I did my teaching practice.

FW: It was a belief in lifelong learning. I have continued to undertake short courses and recently a Masters, with a particular focus on digital technologies that did not exist when I first went to university.

BB: The people – mainly the number of friends I made. Those whose companionship and support took me through my three years and which in some cases have continued to this day. Some tutors, too, have stayed in my mind right through my career.

CB: Debating with my lecturers and actually feeling as though my ideas were important. It was the first time I had felt truly valued in an education environment. It was extremely liberating to be given the opportunity to disagree.

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BB: The bar or the student union, late at night in the main hall when Georgie Fame or another great band was playing. Also, the folk club, the refectory, or the library (before the fire!). It would depend on which year and what time of year you were looking for me.

CB: Either in the ‘quiet’ rooms of the library ferociously typing essays or talking shop over coffee with other students. Goldsmiths gave me the time to develop my own ideas outside of the lecture halls and that was an important aspect of my study.

BB: It was to learn, to be curious about my teaching context and the learning of my pupils and to be self-critical. Some of this took all of those three years to take hold.

In some cases the seeds were sown at College and grew as I grew in my profession.

CB: To question everything.

Goldsmiths not only taught me to be open to ideas and people, but to look past the facade and think critically. My course taught me that as a teacher, listening is more important than talking!

21

LIFE AFTER GOLDSMITHS Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Their first feature film, 20,000 Days on Earth, premiered at Sundance in January 2014, winning the Directing and Editing Awards. In July, they were shortlisted for the annual Film London Jarman Award.

IAIN: I applied to Goldsmiths because I was told it was impossible to get into, and that was reason enough to try. Being an art student in the mid-nineties, we were very much caught in the vapour trail of the YBA generation, but Goldsmiths taught us very quickly that as an artist, you’re on your own. It’s that sink or swim attitude that’s propelled us ever since. Jane and I really got to know each other in our second year and began working together very quickly. Working collaboratively allowed us to do more and be better. As soon as they knew we were serious about it, the department helped us find ways to deal with being in an institution designed to assess the individual.

JANE: We returned to Goldsmiths ten years after our BA to do the Fine Art MA. Although we’ve always considered ourselves artists, we grew out of an ambition to make art that stood a chance of connecting to its audience the way that music can. Perhaps as a result our work frequently tips into music. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to collaborate with some remarkable people. Last year we made a sound installation at Sydney Opera House with Scott Walker. This year our first feature film is being released. It’s a film about the musician Nick Cave and premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The film challenges the conventions of the rock documentary, and we wouldn’t and couldn’t have made it the way it is without our background in visual arts.

Summer 2014 No.41

22 People GOLD STORIES

SYLVESTRA LE TOUZEL MA in Creative & Life Writing, 2010

Sylvestra Le Touzel has been an actress since she was a child, and studied on the creative writing Masters as a mature student. She juggled her studies with acting commitments, and had to rush straight from her graduation ceremony to an audition for a part in the award-winning TV series Appropriate Adult. Other film and television credits include Cloud Atlas, The Iron Lady, Midsomer Murders and The Thick Of It. What was your experience of being at university?

I’d been educated from the age of five at stage school, leaving at 15 with a handful of O-levels.

In my 30s I’d taken a return-tostudy course and several years of Open University, but it wasn’t until I went to Goldsmiths that I discovered what it was like to be part of a college environment. It was a revelation for me to not be in a performing atmosphere. Going in once a week to share and discuss pieces of writing felt like a gift!

I enjoyed every moment of the course. Blake Morrison’s specialist workshop in life writing was key.

It seemed to me a fundamental discipline, like life drawing, from which any form of creative writing could develop. Our visiting writers Goldlink

were memorable, too. Ian McEwan read from a draft of Solar and said afterwards that he’d be getting the blue pencil out. And Colm Tóibín spoke to us about a commitment to telling the truth.

Your graduation ceremony was quite memorable, wasn’t it?

The day of the graduation happened to be the same day an audition came up for the part of Detective Constable Hazel Savage in Appropriate Adult, a screenplay constructed from the story of the interrogation of Fred West.

I had been in two minds about going to the ceremony – I worried it might be indecorous to prance about in a hat and gown at my age – but when confronted with this audition,

attending the celebration at Goldsmiths suddenly assumed monumental importance.

I’d just bought a bicycle, a gesture of independence. It seemed a golden opportunity to try it out.

I became determined to go to the ceremony, then pedal up the Old Kent Road to the meeting. I was possessed; it was a quest.

On the day I heard a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt and one from Nelson Mandela describing how education is the most powerful weapon with which to change the world. After the ceremony I left everyone in the garden, threw my gown across the ‘for hire’ counter, and leapt on the bike. I arrived, sweating, helmet in hand, heart still pumping. I got the part. I couldn’t believe it.

23 GOLD STORIES

LISA CHERRY Trainer/Coach and Author After an adolescence spent in foster care and children’s homes, a two-year spell of homelessness and entry into AA at the age of 20, Lisa undertook a BA in Sociology at Goldsmiths. Here she developed a lifelong passion for people, society and transformation that has led to her career in social work, education and social inclusion. “Find out what makes your heart sing and your belly burn like fire,” she implores.

“Find out what that is and then find a way to make money doing it.”

PAUL BAXTER Head of Chaucer Direct After graduating from Goldsmiths in 1985, Paul took a postgraduate course and delved into the world of insurance – certainly the road less travelled for many music graduates!

He’s built up an impressive career in the industry, working his way up to Director at Tesco Compare, Vice President at Renaissance Insurance, and most recently, Head of car insurance firm Chaucer Direct. “Goldsmiths made me feel like I was a part of where I studied,” he remembers.

KAREN LEE Festivals Manager As Festivals Manager at Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Karen helped shape last year’s World Cultures Festival, a month-long festival with over 100 events. In doing so she left an important mark on the history of Hong Kong performing arts, and got to work with realist director and Stanislavski protégé, Lev Dodin. Karen studied the MA in Performance and Culture and said her time at Goldsmiths was a self-enlightening experience. “I not only developed a new perception of performing arts, but also of the world.”

CELEBRATING YOUR STORIES STEPHEN BROWN Director Stephen recently directed his first feature film, The Sea (based on John Banville’s Booker Prizewinning novel of the same name), to great critical acclaim. He spent six months working with a stellar cast that included Ciaran Hinds and Sinead Cusack, and with director Luc Roeg. He started his career in the 1980s, working as an assistant director on music videos, commercials and feature films. He studied a Postgraduate Film Diploma at Goldsmiths, an experience he describes as “transformational”.

ABHISHEK KUMAR Social Entrepreneur Abishek completed the MA Arts Administration and Cultural Policy in 2007. He has worked for several social enterprises and community partnership models, developing people’s livelihoods through the creative and cultural industries. He has worked with Jaipur Rugs Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that links local artisans with global markets.

He is now working with the Azim Premji Foundation, which aims to improve the quality and equity of education in India.

For over a century, Goldsmiths has nurtured minds that not only challenge the world, but change it. Our Gold Stories celebrate the achievements of our stellar alumni, students and staff who are making a difference to society and supporting others to succeed.

You can read some of these stories at www.gold.ac.uk/ gold-stories.

If you have your own story to tell, or have a suggestion for someone else who could be showcased, drop us a line at alumni@gold.ac.uk.

Summer 2014 No.41

24 Parting Shot

STEVE MCQUEEN 1992

“This was February 1992 at Goldsmiths, and we were working on a short film directed by Alper Ozbemir. I chose to specialise in sound recording because I knew everyone else would want the glamorous jobs of camera operator and director of photography. Steve was on the Fine Art programme and asked if he could join our film group for a couple of shoots. Shortly afterwards, in 1993, he released Bear, his first major film, on 16mm (the format we all used at Goldsmiths).”

—Will Brooker (Postgraduate Diploma in Media and Communications, 1992) Will is a writer, critic and Professor of Film and Cultural Studies at Kingston University

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