Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week

A potent performance

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

Tonight, I’ll be wrapped inside the brutalist behemoth that is London’s National Theatre to watch Rosamund Pike in Inter Alia, the new play from the team behind Prima Facie. Like Australian playwright Suzie Miller’s global hit, for which Jodie Comer was showered with awards, Inter Alia is an interrogation of a broken legal system. The dramas act as counterpoints to one another: while Prima Facie followed a defence barrister known for dismantling rape charges until she herself is rocked by sexual assault, Pike plays a judge striving to reform the system only to be faced by an accusation close to home.

A lyrical launch

Jonathan Bell, Transport and Technology Editor

I spent an entertaining evening at Hammersmith's legendary British Grove Studios in the company of the team behind Telepathic Instruments and their newly-launched Orchid chord generator. With a new drop of the much-sought after songwriting tool on the way, along with updates to the software, the instrument was put through its paces by Manchester-based instrumental band OMA before we got a chance to get hands-on time with the Orchid. Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, co-founder of Telepathic and the driving force behind the Orchid, was on hand to show me the ins and outs of this highly desirable piece of kit, as well as hint at future plans for more devices.

A superlative salad

Bill Prince, Editor-in-Chief

Rare is the opportunity to importune a colleague to ‘pick up some lunch’ for you; but if the offer's there, why resist (particularly if otherwise busy tying up loose ends before a trip away…)? Which is how I came to discover the Salad Project – an eight-strong, London-based chain of leaf-based businesses that excel in packaging up the perfect lunch pail. Mine arrived (courtesy of our head of video) in a handsome paper bag large enough to swallow a watermelon, nevertheless packed to the brim with the best, most bounteous chicken Caesar I've tasted outside of the States: perfectly prepared (and sized) chicken, dressed in a sweet and sticky honey mustard, perched on a bed of crispy cos and healthy kale, all seen off with a slug of peach mineral water and pack of wheatgrain pitta bites. Thanks Seb!

An erotic exhibition

Sofia de la Cruz, Travel Editor

I visited The Courtauld Gallery’s Abstract Erotic exhibition, which features works by Alice Adams, Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse. Using humour and abstract form, these artists explore questions of sexuality and the body. They first exhibited together in 1966, when they were the only women included in Eccentric Abstraction, an exhibition curated by writer and art critic Lucy Lippard at the Fischbach Gallery in New York. I enjoyed taking the time to observe how their tense shapes, often made from industrial materials, can be both seductive and repellent at once. The exhibition is on view until 14 September 2025.

A resounding retrospective

Gabriel Annouka, Senior Designer

I visited Hamad Butt: An Archive at Whitechapel Gallery. Born in Lahore and raised in East London, Butt was a key figure in the city's 90s art scene. His show ‘Familiars’ at Tate featured a Newton's cradle made from glass spheres filled with chlorine gas. Precise, beautiful and genuinely hazardous. In one note, he wrote: ‘I want to incorporate into my work, or as my work, a notion of fragility and a sense of balance where this fragility lies’. Butt died in 1994, aged just 30. His legacy remains to this day vital. A queer, HIV-positive artist who worked with real risk. The gallery display brings together notes, sketches, sci-fi fixations and diary entries full of intent. The archive becomes a space for memory and for the histories that are often left out. On until 7 September 2025.