This publication accompanying his most comprehensive exhibition to date exhibition, at Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover, is Jack O'Brien's first monograph. Conceived by the artist himself, it complements the exhibition in both form and content, documenting his practice from 2021–2025 and transfers it into a different medium. Developed as an artist's book it stands in direct relation to the magazine collages in the exhibition. The torn book cover, perforated paper pages, and a shoelace sealed under cellophane make the publication itself a sculptural gesture.
O'Brien negotiates themes such as staging, visibility, queer identity, and the circular dynamic between consumption, body, and performance. The title refers to the English "cue"—a theatrical cue—and at the same time to its repetition. This double meaning reflects O'Brien's working method, in which material, form, and gesture continually oscillate between suggestion and withdrawal, presence and dissolution. O'Brien works with found and discarded objects, which he transforms through gestures of wrapping, binding, and perforation. His sculptures, installations, and collages use industrial materials such as cellophane, shrink wrap, and synthetic textiles.
The catalogue brings together the first substantial essays on O'Brien's work. Alexander Wilmschen introduces the exhibition, in which chance becomes the driving force of reordering, and situates O'Brien's work within the context of queer phenomenology. Kristian Vistrup Madsen examines the sadomasochistic dimensions of the work. Juliette Desorgues reads the sculptures as embodied punctuation. In conversation with Jeppe Ugelvig, O'Brien reflects on his artistic methodology and language.
The result is a monograph which also formally works with the moments of controlled instability that are so striking in the exhibition: floating, supported and warped.
L'œuvre de Jack O'Brien (né en 1993 à Londres) explore les interactions entre la matière, l'expérience personnelle et la critique culturelle. Ses sculptures, souvent réalisées à partir d'objets trouvés et réutilisés, associés à des matériaux de consommation courante tels que le film rétractable, la résine époxy et le tissu, évoquent un sentiment de précarité et de tension, reflétant à la fois une fragilité physique et sociale. En confrontant de manière inconfortable des matériaux rigides et en les assemblant de façon inattendue, O'Brien reflète la complexité des relations humaines et de l'identité.
