Fire Island Art: 100 Years
Writing
2026
Fire Island Art: 100 Years (Monacelli, 2026), edited by John Dempsey, is the first book to survey the visual history of Fire Island, New York – a place that has served as a haven and creative crucible for queer artists since the 1930s. I contribute an essay on the films made on Fire Island – from the pornographic to the avant-garde – and what they collectively reveal about queer life, liberation and loss.
Phaidon ︎︎
Editor: John Dempsey
Publisher: The Monacelli Press / Phaidon
Hardback, 304 pages
Phaidon ︎︎
Editor: John Dempsey
Publisher: The Monacelli Press / Phaidon
Hardback, 304 pages
Erotic Review
Curation
2026
As Guest Art Curator for issue five of Erotic Review, I invited three collectors – Vince Aletti, Elizabeth Purchell, and Oliver Carter – to reveal their archives. In 'Collected Desires', I argue that archiving erotic art and ephemera is itself a radical act – one that insists on the value of what others have deemed marginal, obscene, or disposable.
Erotic Review ︎︎
Editor: Lucy Roeber
Guest Art Curator: Sam Ashby
Archivists: Vince Aletti, Elizabeth Purchell and Oliver Carter (Under the Counter)
Writers: Megan Prescott, JAA, Emerald Liu, Lucy Roeber, Luis Carlos Barragán Castro (trans. isaac dwyer), Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Ellika Lagerlöf (trans. Nichola Smalley), Avni Doshi, Musa Okwonga, Four Chambers (adapted by Vex Ashley and Tom Glencross), Jamie Brisick, Taíno Mendez, Peter Strickland and Molly Crabapple
Poets: Joseph Earl Thomas and Astrid Haerens (trans. Egan Garr)
Cover: Iris de Moüy
Art Direction and Design: Studio Frith
168 pages, 240mm x 170mm
Photos by Ed Park
Erotic Review ︎︎
Editor: Lucy Roeber
Guest Art Curator: Sam Ashby
Archivists: Vince Aletti, Elizabeth Purchell and Oliver Carter (Under the Counter)
Writers: Megan Prescott, JAA, Emerald Liu, Lucy Roeber, Luis Carlos Barragán Castro (trans. isaac dwyer), Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Ellika Lagerlöf (trans. Nichola Smalley), Avni Doshi, Musa Okwonga, Four Chambers (adapted by Vex Ashley and Tom Glencross), Jamie Brisick, Taíno Mendez, Peter Strickland and Molly Crabapple
Poets: Joseph Earl Thomas and Astrid Haerens (trans. Egan Garr)
Cover: Iris de Moüy
Art Direction and Design: Studio Frith
168 pages, 240mm x 170mm
Photos by Ed Park
Sanctuary
Exhibition + Film
2024
16mm to digital, 24 mins
Sanctuary explores queer spirituality and utopian sexualities through the figure of Purusha Androgyne Larkin (1934–1988), a monk, pioneering gay filmmaker, and self-proclaimed cosmic-erotic mystic. Larkin’s 1981 book, The Divine Androgyne, challenged repression with a spiritual vision rooted in eroticism and presented a radical path to cosmic-erotic consciousness through ‘extreme’ forms of sexual pleasure. Sanctuary explores Larkin's attempt to form a utopian, pleasure-based spiritual community, and considers the complex legacies of his ideas in queer culture. Shot on 16mm, the film weaves together the voices of Larkin’s friends and followers, creating a portrait in absentia of a figure ahead of his time.
Originally shown as part of
Sam Ashby: Sanctuary
San Mei Gallery, London
27 September – 16 November 2024
San Mei Gallery︎︎︎
e-flux Review︎︎︎
Camera: Sam Ashby & Mariah Garnett
Editor: Pablo Mazzolo
Sound: Joe Campbell
Music: Leslie Deere
Grade: William Glass
Featuring: Ron Athey, Guy Baldwin, Ganymede Cupbearer, Revé Douglas, Jack Fritscher, Hunter Hargraves, Mark Hemry, Rob Hopcke, Guy Seiler
Commissioned by San Mei Gallery, with support from Arts Council England and the Arts & Humanities Research Council
Sanctuary explores queer spirituality and utopian sexualities through the figure of Purusha Androgyne Larkin (1934–1988), a monk, pioneering gay filmmaker, and self-proclaimed cosmic-erotic mystic. Larkin’s 1981 book, The Divine Androgyne, challenged repression with a spiritual vision rooted in eroticism and presented a radical path to cosmic-erotic consciousness through ‘extreme’ forms of sexual pleasure. Sanctuary explores Larkin's attempt to form a utopian, pleasure-based spiritual community, and considers the complex legacies of his ideas in queer culture. Shot on 16mm, the film weaves together the voices of Larkin’s friends and followers, creating a portrait in absentia of a figure ahead of his time.
Originally shown as part of
Sam Ashby: Sanctuary
San Mei Gallery, London
27 September – 16 November 2024
San Mei Gallery︎︎︎
e-flux Review︎︎︎
Camera: Sam Ashby & Mariah Garnett
Editor: Pablo Mazzolo
Sound: Joe Campbell
Music: Leslie Deere
Grade: William Glass
Featuring: Ron Athey, Guy Baldwin, Ganymede Cupbearer, Revé Douglas, Jack Fritscher, Hunter Hargraves, Mark Hemry, Rob Hopcke, Guy Seiler
Commissioned by San Mei Gallery, with support from Arts Council England and the Arts & Humanities Research Council
Little Joe
Publication
2024
Stubbornly print-only, notoriously hard to find, and largely uninterested in new releases, my cult queer film zine Little Joe was published on an occasional basis from 2010 to 2021. It championed forgotten and overlooked films, proposing an alternative queer cinematic canon drawn from the fringes of taste and style. This volume, published by SPBH Editions/MACK, brings together the best of its writing from contributors including John Waters, Terence Davies, Douglas Crimp, Sarah Schulman, Erika Balsom, and Wayne Koestenbaum.
Mack Books︎︎
Published by SPBH Editions/MACK
Paperback
138 x 216 mm, 512 pages
Mack Books︎︎
Published by SPBH Editions/MACK
Paperback
138 x 216 mm, 512 pages
BUTT Cinema
Curation
2023
To celebrate the launch of their 32nd issue, alternative gay and queer culture magazine BUTT invited me to curate an all-night cinema for their CLUB BUTT event at ICA London. Recalling the now-closed porn cinemas of London, the program of sexually explicit shorts and features invited the audience to encounter a diverse range of narratives and bodies, from classic gay porn to gender-queer science fiction.
Review︎︎
Shorts: Wildblood (Jonesy, 2009), Ronnie (Curt McDowell, 1972), Pedagogue (Stuart Marshall & Neil Bartlett, 1988), Liz/James/Stillholes (Liz Rosenfeld, 2005/2017), Steam Clean (Richard Fung, 1991), Blank Narcissus (Peter Strickland, 2022), Doors Cut Down (En Malas Companias) (Antonio Hens, 2000)
Features: Ask Any Buddy (Elizabeth Purchell, 2020), I.K.U. (Shu Lea Cheang, 2000)
Photographs by Anne Tetzlaff
Event date: 10 March 2023
Commissioned by BUTT and ICA London
Review︎︎
Shorts: Wildblood (Jonesy, 2009), Ronnie (Curt McDowell, 1972), Pedagogue (Stuart Marshall & Neil Bartlett, 1988), Liz/James/Stillholes (Liz Rosenfeld, 2005/2017), Steam Clean (Richard Fung, 1991), Blank Narcissus (Peter Strickland, 2022), Doors Cut Down (En Malas Companias) (Antonio Hens, 2000)
Features: Ask Any Buddy (Elizabeth Purchell, 2020), I.K.U. (Shu Lea Cheang, 2000)
Photographs by Anne Tetzlaff
Event date: 10 March 2023
Commissioned by BUTT and ICA London