THE MODERNIST 55

THE MODERNIST 55 arrives to improve my day.

‘For this issue, I chose ORDINARY as the theme and picked writers, poets, photographers and illustrators I’d like to be stuck in a (paternoster) lift with.

In a world where AI is blurring boundaries between genuine pizzazz and code-generateddigital sparkle, ordinary is nourishing. It’s cheese on toast. A three-pin plug. Great social housing. A shelf. Only an idiot mistakes the ordinary for average. Behind every slice of excellent ordinaryness is a brainiac on a mission. There’s nowhere to hide shit workmanship in something simple, something ordinary.

Overlooked, plain and occasionally boring, I want you to pause and examine that wooden clothes peg. Study a milk bottle. Think again about pebbledash. Cast aside the jazzy stuff for a minute and put the ordinary on a pedestal. As Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”