An exhibition of collaborative photographic works by Martin O'Brien and zack mennell.
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.
Whistling as the Night Calls is an exhibition of collaborative photographic works by Martin O'Brien and zack mennell. Shot on 35mm Cinestill 800T film, these new 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 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.
Whistling as the Night Calls marks a decade of collaboration and shared practice between mennell and O’Brien. mennell has witnessed, documented, facilitated and performed in much of O'Brien's substantial body of live works. This show is the first exhibition of their collaborative photographs.
Presented by Future Ritual, a curatorial & producing organisation working to support the emergence of new and more attuned cultures and working with artists to create contemporary expressions of ritual.
1st November ~ 1st December 2024
A private view will be held on Thursday 31st October (6 to 9pm).
A closing gathering will be held on Sunday 1st December (1 to 5pm).
VSSL Studio, Deptford, SE8 4AL
Open Thursdays by appointment & Fridays through Sundays, 12pm to 6pm.
Further Information: Martin O'Brien and zack mennell (2024) - VSSL studio