Soft Focus - March's Art Detour

Post-Grad Community Ambassador Elif Cim presents Soft Focus, a student led walk that encourages slow looking and informal discussion in and around public galleries.

If February was about retreating into the quieter edges of the city, March’s detour drew us back into its centre. Off the side streets Oxford Street, Soft Focus continued its premise here: to move between exhibitions slowly, allowing the day to unfold through attention rather than urgency.

We began at Ibraaz, a space that resists easy definition. Part cultural hub, part café, part bookshop and exhibition space, it carries with it a sense of purpose that becomes clear only once you are inside. The smell of food from Oula, founded by Boutheina Ben Salem, settles in first. Opposite, shelves filled with writing from across the global majority offer another kind of nourishment. There is a screening room used for talks and gatherings, and when we visited, a recorded panel reflected on the experiences of the Palestinian diaspora. The tone was measured but deeply felt. Grief, displacement and solidarity were held collectively rather than explained. The name Ibraaz, meaning to bring something into the light, felt apt.

We had come, in part, to experience Cosmic Breath by Joe Namy. The installation asked something different of us. Shoes were removed, voices softened. The space was lined with fabric and carpeted in blue, with speakers positioned at ear level, reminiscent of those found on minarets. At first, they seemed silent. Only when you moved closer did the sound emerge: fragments of the adhan, intimate and directional, offered to one listener at a time.

There was something striking in that shift from broadcast to closeness. For those familiar with spaces of worship, the feeling was recognisable. A quiet attentiveness, a bodily awareness. Visiting during Eid lent the experience an additional resonance, though the work itself remained open, inviting each person to meet it on their own terms.

From there, we stepped back into the city and walked towards Savile Row. The weather held, and the brightness of the afternoon gave a different texture to the journey. Moving together through Regent Street, conversation returned easily, shaped as much by what we had seen as by where we were going.

At Sadie Coles HQ, the tone shifted once more. The exhibition, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, takes its cue from Oscar Wilde’s novella, drawing on its wit and theatricality while extending its concerns into the present. Wilde’s story gently satirised the manners and moral codes of Victorian society, exposing the tension between public performance and private impulse. That tension still feels familiar. The desire to appear composed, to be seen in a particular way, continues to shape how we move through the world.

The gallery itself reflected this sensibility. Curtain draped walls replaced the neutrality of the white cube, creating a sense of stage and backdrop. The works, at first glance, appeared soft, even decorative. Dusty pinks, carefully composed scenes. But the longer you looked, the more unsettled they became. Figures held each other’s gaze too tightly. Interactions felt slightly off balance. There was a theatrical unease running through the space, something closer to a quiet melodrama than a fixed narrative.

It was a stark contrast to the openness of Ibraaz. Where one invited stillness and reflection, the other leaned into artifice and performance. Yet both, in different ways, asked us to consider how we inhabit space. Whether through ritual, community or presentation, we are always negotiating how we are seen and how we belong.

In April, we will gather again. If you are curious about looking more closely, walking more gently and spending time with art and conversation in equal measure, we would love you to join the next Soft Focus detour.

Book your space for the next Soft Focus event!

Post-Grad Stories

Post-Grad Stories is a thriving online platform of postgraduate voices. Here you can share thought-provoking experiences, practices, thoughts and articles about what matters to you.

Do you have a story you want to share? You can email us at pgcommunity@arts.ac.uk.