Denis O’Connor
Double Kiss

Collaborations with architects, poets and film-makers has been an enduring dimension of Denis O’Connor’s work for the last 30 years. His ongoing use of found objects with their own life histories and function underpins this exhibition. The gift of a mint set of posters promoting Samuel Beckett productions by the artistic director of Gare St Lazare in 2019 provided the backdrop to a series of unique drawings undertaken during the 2020 lockdown. This was opportune as O’Connor reveals – “My discovery that Samuel Beckett, in the off-hours, was passionate about snooker, led me to the title of this show, Double Kiss. Beckett frequented a billiard saloon called Les Trois Mousquetaires way out on the periphery of Paris in the 14th Arrondissement, where he wouldn’t be recognised. In the game of snooker, a double-kiss occurs when the white cue ball strikes the object ball twice, by chance. These days I also think of the cue-ball as representing one’s ‘intention’ and the ‘objectball’ not just as a memory but maybe a found object.”