The Cult Collective

17/09/2025

DIGITAL & DIVINE: ERIN LECOUNT'S FIRST HEADLINE TOUR

Tilda Butterworth attends the final sold-out show at London’s Village Underground.

Read on our website:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/digital-and-divine-erin-lecount-first-headline-tour

(In true digital and divine fashion our website host has a text glitch, so this is best read on desktop not mobile if possible)

Erin LeCount

Tilda Butterworth attends the final sold-out show at London’s Village Underground.

23/01/2025

“This is the story of an angel after its fall.

The images serve as an analogy between the angel's fall and the concept of being thrown into the world without choice, without being asked, which applies to every human being in existence.

The philosopher Martin Heidegger describes this phenomenon as ‘Geworfenheit’, which can be translated as ‘thrownness’. Heidegger understands it as the inevitability of existence and the arbitrary, obscure, and unknowable processes of nature that lead to the constitutive fact of having to exist.”

Thrown into this by Pauline Kail is a series of 8 analogue photographs, published in ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND.

You can see the full series of images on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/thrown-into-this-pauline-kail

ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND is still available to order in print on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop

Pauline’s Instagram: .ldflowers

18/01/2025

Words of creative wisdom from David Lynch (1946-2025)

18/01/2025

“I believe life is a continuum, and that no one really dies, they just drop their physical body and we'll all meet again, like the song says. It's sad but it's not devastating if you think like that... We're all going to be fine at the end of the story.”

— David Lynch (1946-2025)

18/01/2025

Aerial is a series of six analogue photographs by Rosanna Martin, published in ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND. These images were among the first submissions we received for the issue, and they really guided us in terms of the shape the zine ended up taking.

We also published a beautiful prose piece by Rosanna called The Street Sweeper, the Smoker and the W**d Man (To whom, all those, with which I share these streets; I root for you.) Both submissions were so tapped in to the vision that we had for this issue, and we’re very grateful to have had the opportunity to publish them.

Rosanna writes:

“Concerned with the ‘second-Nature’ of a globalised world, Aerial materialises a poetic of planes from cloud, aisle and ground level. It is foremost a grappling with scale, that extends to a more existential search for difference and selfhood from within a system of mass movement and regulated frontierless-ness. Attempting to bring the dominant and post-colonial aesthetic of distance closer, into the hands of the individual rather than the eye of the satellite, the camera acts as the cheek upon which these landscapes press upon, whilst the image condenses as breath does upon a window.”

You can see the full series of images on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/aerial-rosanna-martin

ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND is still available to order in print on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop

Rosanna’s Instagram:

16/01/2025

We were so pleased to be able to publish two brilliant pieces of performance documentation in ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND. This is Caged To Preserve by Marta Burhan, a three-hour-long performance that happened in London in December 2023.

Marta writes:

“When walking the streets of my home city of Lviv in Ukraine, on my first visit back since the start of the full-scale invasion, I started noticing shapes I’d never paid attention to before — shapes that used to blend in with the landscape of the city of my childhood so much that they almost became stone shadows. These static shadows went unnoticed. They weren’t worth stopping to look at, because they would be standing there forever.

But this time round every single statue and monument jumped out at me, wrapped in fabric and other materials, caged in huge metal cage-like structures as if they had grown overnight; as if they hadn't been standing there for decades. Although they were covered up, for the first time in my life, I saw them.

I find the concept of being caged in order to survive (explosions) an interesting one. Restriction = safety. Cage = preservation. Where does freedom lie within these strange conclusions? To survive you must wrap up, hide, reside inside of a cage whose structure never before symbolised safety. An animal is more safe in the wild than inside of a cage.”

You can see more images from Caged To Preserve on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/caged-to-preserve-marta-burhan

ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND is still available to order in print on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop

Marta’s Instagram:

15/01/2025

Dance On The Common is a selection of analogue photographs from an ongoing series by Darius Kanuga, published in our most recent issue, COMMON GROUND.

Darius is a 24-year-old photographer from South East London with ethnic roots in Iran and Guyana. He studied Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at UAL LCC and graduated in the summer of 2022. His work spans from fashion to fine art photography to visceral rave imagery.

He writes:
“These photos have been taken over the last six years, and this is a project that I will continue contributing to until the day I stop making images. The sheer joy, catharsis and passion that dance and music allow people to effortlessly enjoy is something that we cannot take for granted as a society so jaded with pressure, pain and paranoia. The dance is where we find mutual understanding, and where momentary bliss can be easily accessed.”

You can see more photos from Dance On The Common and read the rest of Darius’ artist statement and bio on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/dance-on-the-common-darius-kanuga

ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND is still available to order in print on our website here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop

Darius’ Instagram: .kanuga

09/01/2025

Happy New Year to our wonderful readers, followers and contributors. The first piece of work we’re sharing with you in 2025 was published in our most recent issue, ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND.

Gordianknott1994 by Tarfa Bachan is a mixed media piece created with various fabrics and metal chain in 2024. In this work, Tarfa explores themes of memory, separation, and transformation through a textile collage that reflects her Bedouin heritage and a commitment to sustainable art practices. The work is crafted from reclaimed fabrics and inherited textiles, using a combination of the Mola technique — an intricate process involving the layering and cutting away of fabrics to reveal underlying patterns — and silkscreen printing. These materials and techniques are not only a nod to her cultural roots but also a conscious choice to minimise waste, symbolising resilience and the preservation of history.

You can read the rest of her artist’s statement on our website here: https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/gordianknott1994-tarfa-bachan

ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND is still available to order in print on our website here: https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop

Tarfa’s Instagram:

01/12/2024

Our eleventh issue, COMMON GROUND, is a collection of work by artists and writers who have been brought together in dialogue with one another, reflecting how we as creatives want to exist and proceed in the world. Now we give it to you to hold in your hands in print.

Within its pages:
Documentation of two performances, one about the protection of monuments during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the other about the experience of transness in public spaces. Prose about urban life and those with whom we share the streets. An ongoing documentary photography project exploring the safe spaces created by music and dance. The architecture of a building in a poem, and a portrait of an apartment in a poem. A tapestry exploring themes of memory, separation and transformation, reflecting the artist’s Bedouin heritage. Thoughts on the diary as an anchor to a moving plane, grounded in a Palestinian girl’s war diary. A photo series mapping an angel’s fall to earth. And so much more, which we will leave you to discover for yourself.

This issue features work by Shuchi Agrawal, Tarfa Bachan, Genevieve Badia-Aylin, Marta Burhan, Ciel Elsner, Sara Simona Juke, Pauline Kail, Darius Kanuga, Rosanna Martin, Veronica Maier, Lucas Neutelings, Stephanie Ritzema, Robert Seidel, and Eva Weinkötz.

You can order ISSUE XI: COMMON GROUND here:
https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/shop?Category=NEW

We ship to the UK, mainland Europe, and the US.

01/11/2024

A LATE-NIGHT ZIGZAG WALK HOME: ANNIE HAMILTON'S 'STOP AND SMELL THE LIGHTNING'

Tilda Butterworth interviews Australian musician and multimedia artist Annie Hamilton about her new album and creative process.

Collages by Greta Markurt, featuring photographs by Charlie Hardy, Jordan Kirk and Maya Luana.

Read the interview in full on our website: https://www.thecultcollective.co.uk/post/a-late-night-zigzag-walk-home-annie-hamilton-stop-and-smell-the-lightning

12/10/2024

Sending Issue XI: Common Ground to print next week! We’ve been working tirelessly to pull everything together and we think you’re going to love it.

28/09/2024

Welcome to THE CULT COLLECTIVE!

We have been pondering this transition for over a year, and the time has finally come.

The Cambridge Cult began five years ago as a student zine at the University of Cambridge. Since then it has been through so many formative eras that its name no longer feels connected to what we are doing, and what we hope and plan to do.

This change feels full of potential for more experimentation and branching out. The magazine remains at the core of THE CULT COLLECTIVE, but we want to reach further and do more too! We thank you for staying with us ###

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Our new email ([email protected]) is now active, but you can still contact us at the old one if we are already in conversation about COMMON GROUND there.

We’ve run into website difficulties (because of course) but in a few days you will be able to find us at www.thecultcollective.co.uk. For now, we’re at our old website.

Instagram: thecult_collective
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