Sanctuary
Exhibition + Film
2024
16mm to digital, 24 mins

San Mei Gallery presents Sam Ashby: Sanctuary

This exhibition features a new film commission, Sanctuary, exploring queer spirituality and utopian sexualities through the figure of Peter Purusha Androgyne Larkin (1934–1988).

Larkin was a North-American Catholic monk who became a notable early gay filmmaker before moving to San Diego to establish himself as a cosmic-erotic mystic. Shot on 16mm, Sanctuary offers a portrait of Larkin in absentia, weaving together the voices of his friends, lovers and those who have found inspiration in his work, evoking the life of a complex man who seems at once ahead of his time and yet inextricable from it.

San Mei Gallery, London
27 September – 16 November 2024

San Mei Gallery︎︎︎

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


La licorne
Film
2022

Digital video, 16 mins

La licorne (The Unicorn) is a short documentary exploring the life and career of French striptease artist and actress Rita Renoir, and her relationship to Île du Levant, a naturist island in the South of France. 

The film weaves various archival elements including interviews with Rita, her performances, and material relating to the history of the island, to build a tender and complex portrait of a underrecognised feminist icon and a unique naturist utopia.

︎ to request viewing link

Narrated by Agnès Thiollier 

Made in collaboration with Joseph Savage, Paul Bacharach, Marco Novoa, and Adrien Pelletier

Commissioned by Villa Noailles (France) and supported by Elephant Trust (UK)


Little Joe
Publication
2010–Ongoing

As the founder, editor, designer, and publisher of Little Joe, I aimed to create a unique forum for the discussion of cinema, sexuality, gender, and queer history. Since launching our first issue in 2010, the publication has become an important place for stimulating dialogues on film, leading the way in the queer analysis of moving images past and present. Each limited-edition issue features essays, in-depth conversations, short stories, comics, commissioned artworks, and archival discoveries.

To complement to the publication, we curate screenings and events in the UK and internationally. Our collaborations encompass institutions such as Tate Modern, ICA London, LUX, Kunstverein Amsterdam, Light Industry and The Cinema Museum. We also partner with film clubs and festivals, including Dirty Looks, Edinburgh International Film Festival, BFI Flare, Queer Lisboa, and Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest.

littlejoemagazine.com︎︎

Little Joe was featured in MoMA’s Millenium Magazines, a survey of experimental art and design magazines published since 2000.

A collected edition of the journal will be published by SPBH Editions in 2024


Vagevuur
Performance Reading, Text
2019

As a recipient of the Van Abbe Museum’s Deviant Practice research grant (2018-2019), I undertook research into Vagevuur—Eindhoven’s internationally renowned gay fetish club—which closed its doors for good in 2008. The culmination of the research was a text and performance reading in which I discussed the history and culture of the club, and the processes and ethics of embodied research.

Website︎︎

Performances: ‘Museum Takeover: Bodies of Knowledge‘ at Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 3-5 May, 2019

Supported by Van Abbe Museum (Netherlands)



Et in Arcadia Ego
Film
2018

Super 8, digital transfer, 6 mins

Et in Arcadia Ego observes old, now-defunct public toilets that acted as cruising spots in London. Shot on 8mm to emphasise its plaintive quality, it is an elegy for these lost queer spaces and a pilgrimage to their ruins.

︎ to request viewing link

Camera, Editor – Sam Ashby
Music – Jordan Hunt
Sound – Joseph Campbell
Colourist – Chloe Thorne

Commissioned by London Short Film Festival with support from Arts Council England

Premiere: London Short Film Festival
Screenings: Queer Lisboa


© 2023
London, UK