Event
Martin O'Brien: Taste of Flesh/Bite Me I'm Yours
18 Apr 2015
Event times
3-8.30pm
Cost of entry
Performance (free), Discussion (£5)
Address
- Unit 7, Queen's Yard
- White Post Lane, Hackney Wick
- London
- E9 5EN
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- 26, 48, 488
- Hackney Wick Overland
A new performance work by Martin O'Brien, to be presented as part of the ongoing European project - 'Trust me, I'm an Artist: towards an ethics of art/science collaboration'.
About
'Trust me, I'm an Artist' is a European initiative exploring ethical issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine, such as medical self-experimentation, extreme body art, and art practices using living materials and scientific process.
Martin O’Brien’s live art practice uses physical endurance, disgust and pain-based practices to explore the meaning of being born with a life-threatening disease (cystic fibrosis) by confronting others’ responses to illness.
In this new durational performance, Taste of Flesh / Bite Me I'm Yours, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst and hosted by SPACE c/o The White Building - O’Brien turns his attention to the fear of contamination associated with the sick body. In doing so, he highlights recent acute public anxiety around the risk of infection and the surge in depictions of the zombie in popular culture.
The traditional sci-fi figure of contagion - the zombie often reflects environmental, political, or societal concerns, all of which are referenced in O'Briens new piece. O’Brien’s performance will be followed by a discussion with a specially convened ethics committee of Dr Karen Lowton (Department of Sociology, University of Sussex), Dr Gianna Bouchard (Department of Music and Performing Arts, Anglia Ruskin University), and Lois Keidan (Director, Live Art Development Agency), chaired by Professor Bobbie Farsides (Brighton and Sussex Medical School)
PROGRAMME
3-6pm Performance by Martin O'Brien * (Free, drop in)
6-7pm Break
7-8.30pm Panel discussion and Q&A (Booking here, £5)
* This is a durational performance, audience members are welcome to stay for the duration, however can also enter /leave when they wish.
COLLABORATORS
This event is commissioned and produced by The Arts Catalyst in cooperation with SPACE c/o the White Building.
The project 'Trust Me I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art/Science Collaboration' is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with Professor Bobbie Farsides in collaboration with the Waag Society.