The sculptures in Jack O’Brien’s solo show, ‘Waiting for the Sun to Kill Me’ at Ginny on Frederick in London, create a complex confrontation with fragmented, sexualized humanity. In two tall sculptures, Drummer and Lover (both 2021), O’Brien takes basic articles of clothing – a white vest, football socks – and stretches them to the point of abstraction, surrounding them with barbed wire or filling them with wax. Between the socks in Drummer is a cylindrical tube of fencing that takes on the form of a glory hole; looking through it, it’s hard not to hope that someone walking by outside will catch your gaze.
Such details imbue these two not-quite-figures with an erotic energy. O’Brien’s work feels less about permanence and more about what lingers after the fact: the ephemera imbued with the recollection of our desires. The socks in Drummer are scuffed along the knees, echoing signs of sexual activity. The artist amplifies ideas of public sex and cruising through the space itself: the walls and floor are bare tiles, reminiscent of a changing room or public toilets. The tension between the items of clothing – discarded remnants from former conquests – and the surrounding rods and wires evokes O’Brien’s fantasies and memories. The work considers what’s been left behind.
To read more, click here, or download it below.
