Spring-boarding from the exhibition Aftermath: Art in the wake of World War One, this four-week course will be led by artist and scholar Martin O’Brien. His practice uses physical endurance, hardship and pain based practices to challenge common representations of illness.
Course Structure
Seassion One
Introduction: Performing Pain/Representing Pain
Session Two
Pain as Resistance: Pain, Performance, Protest
Session Three
Painful Pleasures: BDSM and Ritual Pain in Art and Performance
Session Four
Living with Pain: Medicine, Pain, and Representation
Biography
Martin O’Brien is a performance artist and scholar and lecturer in Drama at Queen Mary University of London. His practice and research are concerned with performance and representation of illness and disability. His professional performance work considers existence with a severe chronic illness within a contemporary situation. His practice uses physical endurance, hardship and pain based practices to challenge common representations of illness. He completed his PhD at the University of Reading and has published on his own work and the work of other artists in books and journals.