Queer artists Martin O’Brien and zack mennell observe life and death in many forms and the power around them, from different perspectives, in their photography show, Whistling As The Night Calls, on at London’s VSSL Studio in Deptford from 31st October.
Footsteps are heard on the stairs, but no one is seen descending. Glasses fall in the kitchen and smash over the floor as if they had jumped themselves. The word ‘fading’ is written on the walls in blood or red paint. The wails of the dead can be heard by the living, and the horrors of life are visible to those who no longer endure it. People once walked these halls. Unholy sounds ring out into the night.
Shot on 35mm Cinestill 800T film, the images document a series of performance actions from O’Brien’s considerable body of work, situating them within former sites of worship and pilgrimage including the skeletal remains of St Peter’s Seminary, a derelict brutalist college for priests in Cardross, Scotland, a disused church in Romney Marsh and the wind-swept shingle beaches of Dungeness on the Kent Coast.
These striking locations provide evocative backdrops enhanced by their remoteness and histories, each sharing a potency suggestive of previous visitors and occupants. As a result, O’Brien and mennell liken the experience to ‘performing for ghosts’, searching for otherworldly presences via mennell’s photochemical process.
O’Brien is one of the UK’s leading performance artists, known for his long durational live art works which use endurance, humour and pain-based practices to explore what it means to live with cystic fibrosis, a life shortening illness, and the philosophical implications of living longer than expected. Notable works have included those presented at the Whitechapel Gallery (2023), Institute of Contemporary Arts (2021), Tate Britain (2020).
mennell is an emerging, self-taught artist, whose writing, photography and performance imagine different ways of inhabiting the world beyond the mode of daily survival. Their recent works have been commissioned by the Thames Festival Trust (2022) and Liverpool’s DaDaFest (2025). For much of the last decade they have collaborated with O’Brien, supporting his performance-making and documenting his work through their camera lens.
Says O’Brien: “The process of making these images has been really interesting. zack has worked on my performances for almost ten years, so we know each other extremely well. It is interesting to step into their form and think about how images from my practice can work within the photographic. The process has allowed me to make action and images that would be unrealisable in live performance. I’m particularly excited about the images taken at St Peter’s, an abandoned brutalist seminary. I first visited the place in 2007. It has haunted me ever since and I’ve always wanted to do something there”.
Says mennell: “As we approach a decade of working together, I’m aware of all the ways in which my friendship with Martin has altered my reality. Facing and talking about death, dreaming up nightmarish, tender images of a world dying, dead, and beyond the grave together has changed me and shaped my own practice. My work owes a debt to the things I’ve learnt from Martin. Making these performances for camera without a live audience called for new ways of listening and sensing beyond our usual shared vocabulary. We chose sites (including Dungeness Beach and abandoned churches on Romney Marsh and the outskirts of Glasgow), which hummed with power – each place and their non-human inhabitants exerting a strange effect on us. I hope the visions depicted in these photographs can act as testament to the profound impact our collaboration and friendship has had on me.”
Presented by Future Ritual, a curatorial and producing organisation working to support the emergence of new and more attuned cultures and working with artists to create contemporary expressions of ritual.
A private view will be held on Thursday 31st October (6 to 9pm). Please use the link to RSVP: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/22162/martin-obrien-zack-mennell-whistling-as-the-night-calls-opening-event
A closing gathering will be held on Sunday 1st December (1 to 5pm). RSVPs https://www.outsavvy.com/event/22347/martin-obrien-zack-mennell-whistling-as-the-night-calls-closing-gathering
VSSL Studio, Deptford, SE8 4AL Opens 31st Oct (6~9pm) then 1 November ~ 1 December 2024 Open Thursdays by appointment & Fridays to Sundays, 12pm to 6pm
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
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Labels: 2024, Martin O’Brien, photo exhibit, preview, Ris Fatah, VSSL studio, Whistling As The Night Calls, zack mennell
