Home Tags Posts tagged with "new"
Tag:

new

Entertainment

Banksy Installs New Sculpture in Central London’s Waterloo Place Amid Public Debate

by Elena Rossi
written by Elena Rossi

LONDON –

Banksy has installed a new sculpture in central London’s Waterloo Place, utilizing heavy machinery under the cover of darkness. The artist confirmed the installation via a video posted to his Instagram account, a platform he frequently uses to verify his works through images and captions.

The placement of the work in the heart of central London puts it in immediate proximity to established monuments, including the Crimean War Memorial and statues of nurse Florence Nightingale and King Edward VII. The intervention inserts an uncommissioned, contemporary figure into a landscape largely dedicated to military and imperial memory, sharpening questions over who controls the stories told in the U.K.’s civic spaces.

The installation highlights the ongoing administrative challenge of managing unauthorized public art within high-traffic municipal zones. While the work was not commissioned, the local governing body has opted for preservation over removal, exercising its powers as local planning authority under the framework of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which governs alterations to public spaces and listed settings.

A spokesperson for Westminster Council stated: “We’re excited to see Banksy’s latest sculpture … making a striking addition to the city’s vibrant public art scene.” The council, which also oversees heritage and safety obligations across central London, has faced scrutiny in recent years over how it balances conservation of historic monuments with demands for new, more critical works in the public realm.

The council confirmed it has “taken initial steps to protect the statue,” though it noted that the work “will remain accessible for the public to view and enjoy.” Officials indicated that short-term measures focus on crowd management and preventing vandalism, while longer-term decisions on the work’s status may involve consultation with heritage advisers and public art specialists.

Public Response and Interpretation

The sculpture has drawn immediate crowds, with viewers offering varying interpretations of the work’s intent. Ollie Isaac, a 23-year-old student, described the piece as a response to “the resurgence of nationalism in the world and this country,” noting that the figure’s “suit screams politician.” For some visitors, the work reads as a commentary on who is elevated onto plinths in Britain’s capital and whose likenesses remain absent.

Other observers focused on the nature of the installation. Lynette Cloraleigh, 55, described the work as “intriguing” and noted the location as a positive factor, pointing to the contrast between the sculpture’s apparent ephemerality and the permanence of surrounding monuments. Not all reactions were positive; one anonymous elderly passerby stated, “I don’t like it. That’s a nice statue up there – I prefer that,” while pointing toward other monuments in the street, underscoring a persistent divide between those who see Banksy’s interventions as vital critique and those who view them as unwelcome disruption.

Identity Claims and Legal Documentation

The unveiling occurs shortly after an investigation claimed to have confirmed the identity of the artist. The report identified him as a 52-year-old Briton born Robin Gunningham, who later changed his name to David Jones.

This identification mirrors claims made by a tabloid nearly 20 years ago. The recent investigation based its findings on witness testimony from a visit to Ukraine and a New York arrest record dating back to 2000. Banksy has not commented publicly on the latest reporting, and the continued absence of formal confirmation helps preserve both the mystique that surrounds his work and the legal ambiguity that often accompanies his unsanctioned installations.

Institutional Precedent for Public Works

This is not the first instance of the artist placing unauthorized sculpture in the capital. In 2004, the artist unveiled The Drinker on Shaftesbury Avenue, a satirical take on Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker. The piece appeared without permission and was later removed in an incident that fuelled a long-running dispute over ownership and the status of guerrilla artworks in public space.

That work established a precedent for the legal and security complications surrounding unauthorized public art; The Drinker was stolen shortly after its installation and became the subject of years of contested ownership. Since then, institutions and collectors have increasingly grappled with whether such works should be treated as vandalism, cultural asset or both, and how to insure, conserve and display them within existing systems for public art and heritage.

The current statue remains accessible for public viewing. For now, Westminster Council’s decision to protect rather than immediately remove the work aligns with a broader shift in how city authorities engage with street art-less as a purely enforcement issue and more as a live question of cultural policy, urban identity and who gets to define the character of the public square.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Entertainment

Return Auckland: Chef Matt Lambert’s Intentional Dining with Premium Degustation in Ponsonby

by Elena Rossi
written by Elena Rossi

Auckland – White tablecloths, a 10-course degustation priced at $225, and a chef with a Michelin-starred New York record would normally cue a familiar label. But chef Matt Lambert is rejecting that framing as he and his wife, Barbara Lambert, open Return, a 62-seat restaurant in Ponsonby, one of Auckland’s most high-profile dining precincts.

“It’s intentional dining,” Matt Lambert said, positioning the project less as a category play and more as a controlled, designed experience-one that is formal in standard but deliberately broad in audience.

Return will operate with an à la carte offering alongside two degustation menus priced at $165 and $225 per person. The cuisine is described as modern New Zealand, with dishes including pāua, pavlova and a play on fish and chips. A snacks section will include bone marrow and kina.

The opening also marks the couple’s first restaurant in New Zealand, following their decade-plus period working and building a business in the United States, and their subsequent move back to Auckland in 2020.

In an entertainment economy increasingly built on ticketed experiences-where dining, design, and narrative operate as part of a city’s cultural programming-Return’s launch is an example of how hospitality can function like a cultural product: priced, staged, branded, and intentionally structured for repeatability without diluting craft.

Pricing, programming, and the “no sharing” rule

Return’s menu format is also a statement about control-of pacing, of value perception, and of how groups interact with a restaurant. Lambert said the restaurant will not encourage the current mainstream default of “share plates.”

“It will not be shared plates. Order the food you want. I hate going out to dinner and everyone’s like ‘let’s just share’ and they pick things I don’t want and lo and behold, the only thing I liked was the one thing I wanted. I don’t want anyone to experience that ever.”

In business terms, à la carte and degustation models can serve different audiences while protecting operational consistency: degustation menus create a fixed-price pathway for guests who want a comprehensive experience; à la carte can keep the door open to diners who want flexibility in spend and time. Lambert is trying to hold both, while drawing a clear line on the dining-room choreography.

The pricing-$165 and $225 for degustation-places Return firmly in the premium end of Auckland dining, regardless of the terminology used. The restaurant’s insistence that it is “not fine dining” is therefore best understood as a positioning choice: a move to separate “serious standards” from the social codes and perceived exclusivity that some diners associate with the label.

At this level, the restaurant also sits inside a regulatory environment that increasingly treats hospitality as part of a managed urban system rather than a purely private enterprise-from licensing and health compliance through to local planning rules under the Resource Management Act, which shape where and how venues can operate within dense neighbourhoods like Ponsonby.

A New Zealand opening after a New York Michelin chapter

Matt Lambert and Barbara Lambert met while both worked at The Grove in Auckland. Lambert was “a young chef learning from Michael Meredith,” while Barbara Lambert was “an American traveller working front of house thanks to family connections with restaurant owner Michael Dearth.”

In 2013, the couple opened The Musket Room in New York. The restaurant earned a Michelin star “in a record four months,” an accolade they held until their return to Auckland in 2020.

Return has been described as “a more grown-up version” of The Musket Room-language that signals continuity in ambition and craft, while implying a shift in tone and setting. For Auckland, the move is also part of an ongoing trend of internationally trained or internationally recognised talent building premium concepts at home, bringing global benchmarks into local markets without necessarily copying global templates.

For city officials and tourism agencies trying to position Auckland as a food destination, these kinds of returns matter: they add to the pool of operators whose reputations travel, and who can help anchor campaigns that sell the city as a place where visitors can spend seriously on culture as well as scenery.

Lambert, who is from Henderson, said it was “special” to open a restaurant on home turf after most recently working for Rodd & Gunn’s The Lodge group.

Venue strategy: entering a “continuum” on Ponsonby Road

Return is opening on a site “most recently occupied by Luke Dallow and Thane Kirby’s Gigi.” Lambert said he looked at several sites before choosing an address that had been “part of Auckland’s hospitality fabric” for a long time.

The site’s legacy is central to the way the Lamberts are framing the project-not as a clean-slate disruption, but as an institutional handover in a neighbourhood where restaurants are part of the area’s identity and cultural rhythm.

“Long before Return, it was home to Ponsonby Rd Bistro, a restaurant that played a meaningful role in shaping how this city ate and gathered. We are entering a continuum and will treat it accordingly.”

That language matters in a precinct like Ponsonby, where openings and closures are tracked not just as commerce, but as signals about taste, affordability, and who the city is being built for. By referencing the site’s history and naming the earlier restaurant as culturally consequential, Lambert is putting Return into a lineage-implicitly asking diners to see the venue as part of Auckland’s public life, not simply as a private luxury.

It also aligns with Auckland Council’s stated approach to “vibrant town centres,” where hospitality venues are treated as anchors in mixed-use main streets rather than isolated businesses-an approach that gives restaurants a role in how neighbourhoods are planned, policed and promoted.

“Intentional dining” as a brand claim

Lambert’s core thesis is that the restaurant should be experienced as accessible in attitude but uncompromising in execution-an attempt to widen the audience for premium dining without flattening the standard. He is explicit that the environment is designed to feel welcoming even with white tablecloths and premium pricing.

“At Return, the standards are serious, but the environment is welcoming, this is not fine dining, it is intentional dining. Nothing here is accidental, everything is deliberate.”

The choice of phrase-“intentional dining”-functions like a brand definition. It asserts curation and detail (useful in justifying premium price), while rejecting the social friction that can reduce audience reach. For a 62-seat restaurant, reach is not about scale in seats; it is about frequency, repeat visitation, and the strength of a reputation that can hold demand over time.

Lambert also framed the venue as broadly open to different types of diners, tying the restaurant’s purpose to enjoyment rather than formality.

“This restaurant is for everyone. Like you can come in a Motorhead T-shirt and tight black jeans from West Auckland in the 1980s or from the surrounding areas in a suit … if you have fun, then we did a good job. That’s what restaurants are for, to be happy and fun.”

Design as cultural signaling, not decoration

Return’s physical identity is being treated as a core part of the product: not background, but a front-facing piece of the experience and the brand.

The restaurant’s main design features include a 16.2m-long swamp kauri countertop and a chocolate-brown travertine fireplace. Its logo features the tītī (muttonbird), “a migratory shearwater with homes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.”

In practical terms, the countertop and fireplace telegraph permanence and craft. In symbolic terms, the tītī logo aligns with Lambert’s personal and professional arc between hemispheres-an identity that connects directly to the couple’s Auckland-New York-Auckland path.

Lambert said the name was chosen after exploring multiple ideas, with “Return” landing as the right articulation of both movement and homecoming.

“I was playing with a lot of ideas for names,” Lambert said. “Return felt bang on. The connotations of travel and my own journey is pretty awesome. Coming home – it’s kind of huge.”

Food as a cultural product in a media-facing city

Restaurants at Return’s price point do not exist outside the broader entertainment and media ecosystem. Even without explicit partnerships or sponsorships, premium hospitality is structurally exposed to cultural coverage: openings become events; chef reputations become brands; menu decisions become narratives. In that environment, the terminology a restaurant chooses-fine dining versus “intentional dining”-is not semantic trivia; it is part of how a business manages its public identity and, by extension, its demand.

Return’s menu includes recognisable local reference points-pāua and pavlova-and a “play on fish and chips,” which situates the project in New Zealand culinary language while keeping it flexible enough to support technique-driven execution. For a chef whose most prominent restaurant chapter was built in New York, that balance can matter: it allows a restaurant to be legible to local diners while still being specific to the chef’s voice.

Lambert has also framed the reopening of a Ponsonby Road address as a reconnection-both with the street and with the city’s dining public.

“I’m really excited to be talking to Ponsonby Rd again,” he said.

Return is opening as a 62-seat restaurant on Ponsonby Road in Auckland, offering an à la carte menu and two degustation options priced at $165 and $225 per person. For city-makers watching where money is being spent after dark-and how those choices define Auckland’s cultural identity-it is another data point in how a globalised hospitality class is choosing to come home, and what that might mean for the streets they return to.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Entertainment

THE BOYZ Members Seek Contract Termination with ONE HUNDRED Amid Unpaid Settlements and Concert Dispute

by Elena Rossi
written by Elena Rossi

SEOUL – Nine members of THE BOYZ have reportedly moved to terminate their exclusive contracts with ONE HUNDRED, escalating a dispute that centers on alleged settlement non-payment, access to contract and payment documentation, and the practical resourcing of an upcoming arena concert in Seoul.

A March 19, 2026 report said Sangyeon, Jacob, Younghoon, Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin, Q, Sunwoo, and Eric-every member of the group except New-sent a “certificate of contents” to ONE HUNDRED Chief Executive Officer Cha Ga Won in February 2026, notifying the company of termination of their exclusive contracts. The notice cited an alleged breach of trust “beyond repair” tied to alleged contract violations, according to the report. Negotiations were said to have continued for roughly one month before breaking down.

The development matters beyond a single artist-management dispute because K-pop’s touring and recorded-music economics depend on predictable settlement cycles and reliable operational support-inputs that become especially exposed when a major concert is already on the calendar and the artist side claims it is self-funding core production needs.

Notice of termination and disputed access to documentation

According to the March 19 report, the nine members’ February 2026 notice to Cha Ga Won also included a request to access contract and payment details. The report said the requested materials were not provided for more than a month and that no explanation was provided during that period.

In the course of negotiations, the report said, Cha Ga Won counterclaimed that the members were negligent and demanded penalty fees for breach of contract if they wanted to terminate their agreements.

Under South Korea’s standard idol-management system, exclusive contracts govern everything from appearance schedules to the allocation of settlement revenues. Disputes over access to underlying payment records have become more visible as artists increasingly invoke rights grounded in the country’s Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act and related entertainment-industry guidelines, which emphasize transparency in so‑called “slave contract” arrangements.

In South Korea’s entertainment business, a “certificate of contents” is commonly used as a formal, content-certified notice in disputes where parties want to document what was sent and when. While it is not itself a court ruling, it is often used to establish a paper trail ahead of potential litigation, injunction requests, collective mediation, or negotiated exits.

One member reportedly remains with the agency

The same report said member New decided to remain with ONE HUNDRED for undisclosed personal reasons, separating his contractual position from the nine members who reportedly delivered termination notices.

That split has potential operational implications in a group business where rights, branding, touring logistics, and revenue splits are typically organized around a single management entity and a unified set of exclusive agreements-though the report did not describe any restructuring terms, revised member activities, or a revised promotion plan.

For downstream partners-from broadcasters to brand sponsors-a single group operating under mixed contract status can also complicate usage rights for music videos, group likenesses, and live recordings if future disputes move into court or arbitration.

Allegations of unpaid settlements and self-funded operations

The March 19 report cited earlier reporting alleging the company had not paid “billions of won” (described as “millions of dollars”) since the third quarter of 2025. It also alleged the company used 150 million won (approximately $100,000) in dorm deposit money.

The report further said that, despite THE BOYZ being scheduled to hold a concert at Seoul’s KSPO Dome from April 24 to 26, 2026, the agency did not provide a practice room. According to the report, the members rented practice rooms using their own money and also covered costs for “numerous staff members.”

From an industry operations perspective, practice space, transportation, and staff resourcing are not discretionary details for a major concert cycle; they are baseline line items that typically sit within an agency’s tour-prep and promotion budget. When those items shift to artists personally-even temporarily-it can create immediate accounting disputes over whether the spending is recoverable, whether it was authorized, and whether it should be deducted from settlement calculations or treated as company obligations.

Artist-side funding of core production inputs can also unsettle relationships with creditors, insurers, and tour sponsors, who often assume that agencies-not performers-are bearing operational risk for large-scale shows.

Reported wider financial strain across related labels

Beyond THE BOYZ, the March 19 report said Cha Ga Won’s other music labels-Big Planet Made and INB100-were in states of capital impairment and associated with “tens of billions of won” (described as “tens of millions of dollars”) of unpaid settlement.

The report also described a pullback in basic operational support, including transportation support, with artists said to be attending scheduled activities in their personal vehicles.

While the report did not provide audited financial statements or court filings, the alleged pattern-if substantiated-would speak to the core risk that sits under modern idol-group monetization: agencies front costs and manage cash flow across recordings, endorsements, and touring, then settle with artists after platform and promoter receipts clear. When settlements are disputed, the stress tends to surface first in the most operationally visible categories-transport, staffing, rehearsal space, and production deposits.

Regulators and industry bodies have periodically signaled interest in the resilience of this model, particularly where multiple labels under common ownership show signs of simultaneous financial strain, raising questions about intra-group guarantees and the protection of artist earnings.

How disputes of this kind can affect touring and counterparties

THE BOYZ’s KSPO Dome dates-April 24-26, 2026-place the dispute inside a time-sensitive window where multiple counterparties typically require clear authority to proceed: venue operations, ticketing, security, staging vendors, choreography and production teams, and insurers.

In a standard arena-show workflow, responsibilities are divided across management (artist scheduling and staffing), promoters (show financing and marketing), vendors (sound, lighting, staging), and the venue (operations, staffing, safety compliance). Contractual uncertainty-especially if exclusive contract status is contested-can complicate who is authorized to approve spend, sign production riders, or make binding changes to show execution.

Practically, that uncertainty can slow purchase orders for large technical builds, delay finalization of safety and emergency plans, and leave international ticket‑buyers unclear about whether shows will proceed as announced. It can also influence how banks, equipment providers, and insurers price risk for future K-pop tours, particularly those built around tightly scheduled arena runs.

The March 19 report did not state that the April concerts were canceled or postponed, nor did it detail any changes to ticketing or production plans. It did, however, describe a rehearsal and staffing environment in which the artists were said to be personally funding parts of the preparation process.

What is known from the March 19 report

Based on the March 19, 2026 report as described:

  • Nine members-Sangyeon, Jacob, Younghoon, Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin, Q, Sunwoo, and Eric-reportedly notified ONE HUNDRED in February 2026 that they were terminating their exclusive contracts.
  • The notice reportedly cited an alleged breach of trust “beyond repair” due to alleged contract violations.
  • Negotiations were said to have continued for about one month and then broken down.
  • The artists reportedly requested access to contract and payment details; the report said the materials were not provided for over a month and without explanation.
  • The report said CEO Cha Ga Won counterclaimed member negligence and demanded penalty fees if the artists wanted to terminate.
  • Member New reportedly decided to remain with ONE HUNDRED for undisclosed personal reasons.
  • The report referenced allegations of unpaid settlements since the third quarter of 2025, including claims involving a 150 million won (approximately $100,000) dorm deposit.
  • THE BOYZ are scheduled to perform at KSPO Dome in Seoul from April 24 to 26, 2026; the report said the agency did not provide a practice room and that members rented rooms and covered staff costs.
  • The report said other labels associated with Cha Ga Won-Big Planet Made and INB100-were in capital impairment with “tens of billions of won” in unpaid settlement, and that transportation support had halted.

THE BOYZ remain scheduled to hold their Seoul concerts at KSPO Dome on April 24, 25, and 26, 2026, as referenced in the March 19 report.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail