Martin O’Brien (born August 7, 1987) is a

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

who lives and works in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Life

O’Brien was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1987. In his formative years Martin was a keen member of Burnley Youth Theatre where he took on a number of roles, including Terry Dumpton in the play ''The Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty'' and Ernie in ''Ernie's Incredible Illucinations''. He studied art at

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

, receiving a BA in 2008; and subsequently received a MA in performance from

Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...

, and a practice-based PhD from

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

. He is Head of Department of the Department of Drama at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

Work

O’Brien is best known for

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

actions in which he uses

endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...

and un-simulated

injury Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with ...

to explore his experience of living with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

, a chronic genetic illness. A key proponent of

disability art Disability art or disability arts is any art, theatre, fine arts, film, writing, music or club that takes disability as its theme or whose context relates to disability. Meaning and context Disability arts is an area of art where the context of ...

in the U.K., O’Brien uses performance art as well as installation and

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

to challenge common representations of

illness A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...

and

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

and examine what it means to be born with a life-threatening disease. His performances include vignettes that employ percussive therapeutic techniques designed to treat the symptoms of cystic fibrosis (beating the chest to expel

phlegm Phlegm (; , ''phlégma'', "inflammation", "humour caused by heat") is mucus produced by the respiratory system, excluding that produced by the throat nasal passages. It often refers to respiratory mucus expelled by coughing, otherwise known as ...

); or invented techniques such as cutting the shape of lungs onto the skin of his chest. For example, ''Mucus Factory'' of 2011 (which lasts between three and six hours) is structured by a cycle of actions through which O’Brien performs versions of therapeutic interventions required to maintain his health and slow the progress of cystic fibrosis. His works also tend to borrow the styling, actions, and paraphernalia of

sadomasochistic Sadism () and masochism (), known collectively as sadomasochism ( ) or S&M, is the derivation of pleasure from acts of respectively inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. The term is named after the Marquis de Sade, a French author known ...

practices, including

genital piercing Genital piercing is a form of body piercing that involves piercing a part of the genitalia, thus creating a suitable place for wearing different types of jewellery. Nevertheless, the term may also be used ''pars pro toto'' to indicate all body p ...

autoerotic asphyxiation Erotic asphyxiation (variously called asphyxiophilia, hypoxyphilia or breath control play) is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for the purposes of sexual arousal. With a partner (or alone), the act often involves strangulatio ...

, or

mummification A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

. His use of imagery derived from

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often Eroticism, erotic practices or Sexual roleplay, roleplaying involving Bondage (BDSM), bondage, Discipline (BDSM), discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given ...

is often in direct dialogue with the work of the late Bob Flanagan, a pioneering artist who similarly used pain and endurance to explore his experiences as a person with

in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the first version of his major work ''Mucus Factory'' in 2011, O’Brien has collaborated frequently with Flanagan’s former collaborator (and widow), the artist

Sheree Rose Sheree Rose (born 1941) is an American photographer and performance artist. She is best known for her collaborative work with performance artist Bob Flanagan, and her photography documenting a wide range of Los Angeles subcultures, especially in ...

, including most recently on the durational performance and video installation ''The Viewing'' (2016). According to an interview for

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio, having lived beyond his life expectancy twice, first beyond the age of five and then beyond 30, O’Brien identifies as a

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

; this has informed his recent works, including his comical uses of zombie imagery in works such as ''If It Were The Apocalypse I’d Eat You To Stay Alive'' (2015), as well as prompting him to spend his 30th birthday in an abandoned morgue (during a 24-hour performance in 2017). In a conversation with the artist

Tim Etchells Tim Etchells (born 1962) is an English artist and writer based in Sheffield and London. Etchells is the artistic director of Forced Entertainment, an experimental performance company founded in 1984. He has published several works of fiction, ...

, O’Brien stated:

I work with the materiality of my disease. So the mucus I produce becomes a material to use and I work with ideas of duration and physical endurance and infliction of pain on my body. I talk about the politics of sickness and at the moment a lot of my work is around the figure of a zombie. I’m doing work that thinks about how I might use the zombie as a metaphor for thinking about sickness and what it means to be sick.

His work has been presented throughout the UK, Europe and the USA including

Spill Festival SPILL Festival is an artist-led biennial of theatre and live art in the UK that takes place in various venues in London and Ipswich, England. The festival was originally produced as the ''SPILL Festival of Performance'' by Pacitti Company under Art ...

(London), Kapelica Gallery (Ljubljana), Abrons Art Center (New York),

ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

(Los Angeles),

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

, London, In Between Time Festival of Performance (Bristol),

Chapter Arts Centre Chapter Arts Centre (often just referred to as Chapter) is an arts centre in Canton, Cardiff, Canton, Cardiff, Wales, opened in 1971. Description Chapter hosts films, Play (theatre), plays, performance art and live music, and includes a free ar ...

(Cardiff), and Grace Exhibition Space (New York). He has been funded and commissioned by organisations such as

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

, and the

Live Art Development Agency Live Art Development Agency, known by its acronym LADA, is an arts organisation and registered charity founded in London in 1999 by Lois Keidan and Catherine Ugwu. LADA provides professional advice for artists as well as producing events and p ...

. ''Survival of the Sickest'', the first book about O'Brien's work, was published in 2018 by the Live Art Development Agency. It includes essays by

Alphonso Lingis Alphonso Lingis (November 23, 1933 – May 8, 2025) was an American philosopher, writer and translator, with Lithuanian roots, and professor emeritus of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. His areas of specialization included phenomeno ...

Amelia Jones Amelia Jones (born July 14, 1961), originally from Durham, North Carolina, is an American art historian, art theorist, art critic, author, professor and curator. Her research specialisms include feminist art, body art, performance art, video art, ...

, Yetta Howard and Gianna Bouchard.

References

External links

Staff profile, Queen Mary University of London
{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Martin 1987 births Living people English contemporary artists Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of Dartington College of Arts Alumni of the University of Reading Artists from Lancashire People from Burnley