A weekend gathering convened by multidisciplinary artist zack mennell at Peckham’s Safehouses this March, COMMON HOST summons strange archetypes and odd beings, placing ancient folk customs in relation to the post-industrial landscapes of London and Essex.
Drawing in members of zack’s artistic community, the programme includes performances and an exhibition, as well as a new short film from zack, made in collaboration with Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi. COMMON HOST also features Leon Clowes, Julia Bardsley, Nathalie Coste, Andrea Mindel, Chanel Vegas, Pianka Parna, Ella Johnston, Ash McNaughton and Jo Morrison. More artists and collaborators are to be announced.
zack mennell Photo: Baiba Sprance ©
COMMON HOST is rooted in the landscapes of the Thames Estuary, especially Thurrock, a terrain marked by centuries of human intervention, industry, trade and decline. Retail parks and housing estates are built over historic sites; chalklands are cut through with ancient deneholes; quarries gape like hungry maws; rubbish rises from landfill burial grounds; animals and plants reclaim former industrial sites as collapsing structures become their unlikely new homes.
Drawing on folklore, archaeology, and contemporary mythmaking, zack Mennell imagines a series of mutant, cryptid beings emerging from the sites where natural processes have overtaken human structures. In these overlapping layers of prehistoric ritual, imperial ambition, industrial collapse and ecological crisis, mennell’s strange beings corrode temporal boundaries. Ancient belief systems infect new ruins; mystical residues leak into the infrastructure of late capitalism; industrial sites are revealed as the vacated flesh of Empire; and the Estuary’s pylons, quarries and riverbed are haunted by cruising creatures, corrupted gods and half-remembered rituals – signals from past and future worlds, flickering within the present.
Says zack: “Having grown up in the industrial corridor of the River Thames, I am drawn to industrial infrastructure – I seek to unearth the buried structures, forms and networks our lives rely on and draw attention to what looms over us, ignored and hidden in plain sight. These explorations entangle my interests in ecology, agential realism, anti-psychiatry, folklore, physics, lived experience, disability rights, and fighting injustice.
Since 2022, this performance series, titled ‘(para)site’, has seen me undertake psychogeographic research around the urban river and the broader Thames Estuary. I scavenge for industrial relics and historical detritus, activating them in performances to call attention to the toxic legacies of industry, capitalism and colonialism as they are felt by marginalised people today. In these performances, I shift between performing ‘as myself’ and as strange, other-than-human beings. These sad, funny beings seem to eke out a life amidst the waste – a performance of pollution and survival”.
zack mennell Photo: Baiba Sprance ©
Programme
Safe House 1 & 2 has limited space, so booking is advised. All tickets are pay-what-you-can.
Friday, 13 March – An evening of performances by Zack Mennell and Ash McNaughton tickets
Exhibition View from 18.30
Performances from 19.15 – Ends 21.00
Sat 14 March – Contaminated Materials: a workshop exploring the performance of complex histories 10.00 – 16.00 more info tickets
An evening of performances, including Nathalie Coste & more, to be announced, tickets
Exhibition View from 17.30
Performances from 18.15 – Ends 21.00
Sun 15 March – An afternoon performance marathon, featuring Leon Clowes, Chanel Davis, Zack Mennell, Jo Morrison and more, to be announced, tickets
Exhibition View from 13.00
Performances from 14.00 – Ends 17.00
The Safehouses are derelict domestic spaces, and capacity is limited. The venue provides the following access information: While the ground floor, garden, and toilet are accessible at Safehouse 1, at Safehouse 2, the ground floor is accessible, but there are steps into the garden. For this reason, the houses are not wheelchair accessible, so we’d recommend the spaces for people with a high level of mobility. Our gathering takes place only on the ground floor of each building. Please write with any questions to producing@futureritual.co.uk
About zack mennell
zack mennell (b. 1994, they/them) is a self-taught artist using writing, photography and performance to explore queerness and neurodiversity in relation to presence and visibility. Zack frequently collaborates with performance artist Martin O’Brien, performing throughout the UK and in Europe. Zack regularly documents performance and live events through photography; their photographic practice is strictly analogue.
zack is a member of the GLA Liberty Advisory Group and the Bethlem Artist Collective, and a studio holder at Triangle LGBTQ+ Cultural Centre. They were a member of the TOMA (The Other MA) 2024/25 cohort, an alternative MFA based in Southend-on-Sea. Zack was a 2025 British Council Venice Biennale Fellow through their work with Outside In. Recent notable partnerships include working with DadaFest International, The Bluecoat, Metal (Liverpool), ArtsAdmin, VSSL Studio, Future Ritual, Duckie, British Art Network and Venice International Performance Art Week.
Top photo zack mennell by Manuel Vason Photo ©