Caleb White

It is snowing. I spend the morning baking a loaf of bread. Leaving it to cool I decide to spend the day visiting some Manchester museums I have not yet visited. The walk over is cold, the closer I get to the city centre, the less snow there is on the ground until, walking through Spinningfields, there is little more than a trace of slush. Image via People's History Museum Weather notwithstanding, the first port of call is the People’s History Museum. I am writing this from their café. The entrance hall is oddly municipal, and the flat grey light from outside makes the space feel rather sparse. There were, however, plenty of people within the museum itself. I plan to split this review into two posts. The entire museum is split into three gallery spaces – the third of which being a collaborative make space. Leaving two galleries to explore. This post considers the first. The floors are split chronologically, Gallery One focussing on pre-1945. Now, the People’s History Museum expl...

In the mysterious interim between Christmas and New Years, my family and I visited Littlecote House to see the remains of the Villa and Mosaic within its grounds. Despite it being pretty much on our doorstep, I had never visited here before, so found the presence of a free-to-access, well maintained roman settlement pretty astonishing and frankly quite surreal.  Image via Penny Post  We pull into a car park separate from the house - Littlecote was sold in '96 to Warner Holidays who operate it as a country hotel and resort. Here we are ambushed by a small excitable dog named Waffle, who decides to join us for a bit of our walk.  Within a stone’s throw lies the footprint of a Roman Villa and Bathhouse. Its foundations have been unearthed, and stand, open to the elements, sketching out the rough area of the settlement. On the banks of the river Kennet, this site was originally built to guard a crossing, but development of river trade in the area turned it into a key locati...

The final of my three visits on December 19th, Modern Art Oxford have re-opened with a bold and discomforting barrage of collographs from Belkis Ayón. An artist I had not encountered before, and one I am unlikely to forget.  It is worth noting that due to the circumstances of Ayón's life, this post must come with a trigger warning. That aside, the continuous intensity and single-minded pursuit of her subject of (to me at least) obsession left a strong impact.  As a frequent visitor to the Modern Art Oxford in my teenage years (yes I am aware of how awful that reads), I accidentally encountered the exhibition back to front, not aware of the recent revamp of their ground floor and cafe area. In my defence, the building remains a bit of a maze, with the more obvious entry way to the upper floors still hidden behind a slightly dodgy feeling sliding door within their gift shop. The ground floor is lovely though. Congrats.  But it is cold out and my bag is heavy...

The second exhibition on my whistlestop tour was to be found just next door in the ST Lee Gallery of Weston Library. Curated by M. Aroney and D. Zeitlyn, 'Oracles, Omens and Answers', had more floorspace to play with, and used it to introduce interactive elements to their exploration of divination across time and cultures.  Image via CCTdigital.com  Upon entry, you are immediately greeted by a carnival-esque wheel which, when spun, presents you with a number. Corresponding numbers hidden in certain cabinets turned the whole exhibition into a playful act of divination. The numbers, when found, were attached to oblique horoscope style predictions. The wheel, however, was completely stiff, not spinnable. Though, for the sake of participation, let's imagine that I got given the number 6.  Image via New Scientist Throughout the exhibition, different displays present material evidence of different forms of divination, from cartomancy to astrology and all in between. Divination ...

En route to visit relatives for Christmas, I found myself back in Oxford with a decent slice of time to kill. What better use of it than visit some temporary exhibitions. The next three reviews were visited in relatively quick succession on the 19th of December 2024.  Image via The Bodleian Write Cut Rewrite could be found in Weston Library's treasury room, across the street from the Radcliffe Camera, all the way towards the back right of the spacious entrance hall. It was on display between February 2024 and January 2025 - having been curated by D. van Hulle and M. Nixon. Their accompanying book sits conspicuously above a bookshelf, visible as you enter.  The treasury is a rather small, single room exhibition space, and - this time - it is home to four central square cabinets. The walls are separated into thematic displays. The final element is the aforementioned bookshelf, containing published copies of the works under consideration in the exhibition. I wonder if anyone ...