Link to exhibition catalogue

Queens of the Pub is an exhibition of photographic images and costumes by Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak. This project honours the queen of the pub, diversity and recycling, featuring a cast of people of diverse ages, backgrounds, gender and sexual orientation.

‘[Connor and Wasiak] assemble their works with all the finesse of a Michelin chef. While portraying scenes from different eras they do more than recreate the past as pastiche, they force it to confront the present day. Their costuming, always so intricate and precise, speaks nonetheless of a contemporary eye for fashion. Their scenes contain multiple narratives, distilling their ideas in a heady invention that trips the light fantastic between carny and critique, wit and wantonness, chaos and control. Working with an extensive team of production and post-production technicians, they bring the cinematic skills and sensibilities of the twenty-first century to parade past pleasures that dared not speak their name to a present in which the thrill of excess is more talked about than indulged.’

Alasdair Foster