[30/10/25]

Again/Fucking in the Knotweed, in collaboration with Marf Summers for Flip Side of the Coin at Chemist Gallery. Curated by Norman Mine. 

Photos by Marf Summers & Barney Pau.

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Copy from Marf Summers "Taking place in the back room behind the gallery, in the unassuming and banal “airbnb/male living space/housing crisis coded” context of a micro-apartment, I took on the character of a folkloric entity, a lonely batchelor made from wool carpet underlay, lambswool, and leather. Guests served themselves a swampy borthday apple cake made by Barney with fermented fig jam, fig leaf buttercream, and fermented magnolia flower buttercream decoration.

The performance sought to reveal collisions between the mundane and the sacred, and meditate a little on the ritual of the birthday ceremony, the consensual-non-consent of the happy birthday song, and the passing of time. The party playlist was interjected every second or third track by different renditions of the happy birthday song. I can particularly recommend checking out “happy birthday princess” and “happy birthday daddy polka #2” for some really torturous gender-based auditory horror.

The space was dressed with patchwork curtains and tablecloth made from recycled tablecloths by Barney and hand-dyed in the river lee, and a painting on fermented Japanese knotweed paper."

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Fucking in the Knotweed is part of an ongoing body of work exploring the spaces shared by gay cruisers and 'invasive' species. In these dark corners, non-normative lives can live free of society's gaze. The body of work is inspired by an article I wrote for the Austrian magazine The Healthy Times' 6th issue on sex. Read here.

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Patchwork tablecloth dyed in the muddy banks of the River Lee. Fermented Japanese knotweed paper from knotweed foraged by the same river bank. Stills from the shoot for the magazine, shot in the same area.