San Mei Gallery presents Sanctuary, a solo exhibition by London-based artist-filmmaker Sam Ashby. Ashby’s practice turns to queer narratives from history, animating forgotten, hidden, and otherwise marginal lives through film, writing and publications. This exhibition features a new film commission, Sanctuary, exploring queer spirituality and utopian sexualities through the figure of Peter Chistopher 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. 

In 1981, Larkin published The Divine Androgyne According to Purusha, which introduced his distinctive form of queer spirituality and functioned as a guidebook to achieve cosmic-erotic consciousness through sexual pleasure and pushing the body to its limits. Larkin’s theories drew inspiration from the Gay Liberation and the Human Potential/New Age Consciousness movements, as well as Buddhism, Tantra, and Jungian psychology. In his book, Larkin prophesised a new tribe of erotically enlightened humans – ‘Androgynes’ – each of whom comprised “both anima/yin and animus/yang within a single bodyconsciousness”, and were free from the repressions that society and organised religion placed upon them. Emerging from a context in which religion had long had a violently prohibitive relationship to homosexuality, Larkin attempted to cultivate a culture of religious practice on queerness’ own terms.

Housed within a purpose-built structure inspired by a building designed by Larkin as his desert sanctuary, the film documents the complex and varied legacies of Larkin’s ideas, including his attempt to build an intentional community around the ‘sacred activity’ of fisting. The chorus of disparate and distinct voices Ashby assembles hints at the possibility of a community of ‘Divine Androgynes’ that Larkin’s bold work intended to manifest but which, as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, never came to be. 

Contemporary interpretations of queerness frequently position it within the framework of progressive liberalism, with its associated values of non-religiousness and tolerance. In Sanctuary, Ashby muses on an alternative and more confronting queer history steeped just as much in esotericism as eroticism, part of broader research by the artist into queer spiritual traditions with roots in late nineteenth-century Europe, particularly among theosophists, utopian socialists, and other dreamers.

Ashby’s camera tenderly observes the environments Larkin once inhabited – the palm-lined shores and desert mountains of San Diego – allthewhile tracing Larkin's diffuse influence within the domestic spaces of queer communities of the West Coast and the arid landscapes of New Mexico. Sanctuary documents its subjects’ everyday activities of sex, gardening and personal archiving, emphasising the practices of care and pleasure with which queer people have found refuge within an all-too-hostile culture. In a cultural moment marked by queer assimilation, Ashby foregrounds the necessity of sanctuary – spaces for intimacy, vulnerability, and sex that can function as shelters for social imagination.

Artist Biography 

Sam Ashby (b. 1981) is a British artist based in London. Sam’s archival, research-led practice is concerned with uncovering marginal narratives and activating them through film, writing and publishing. From 2010–2021 he edited, designed and published Little Joe, a journal for the discussion of film around subjects of sexuality and gender within a queer historical context. His first film, The Colour of His Hair (2017) premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and won the Best Documentary prize at London Short Film Festival 2018. His last, La Licorne (2022), was commissioned by Villa Noailles for the 90th anniversary of Île du Levant, a naturist colony in the South of France. He was an artist in residence at the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR, 2014), is a recipient of the Van Abbemuseum’s Deviant Practice research grant (2018–2019), and is a MacDowell Colony Fellow (2016, 2019). Most recently, he has edited an anthology of Little Joe for SPBH Editions/MACK, and was an artist in residence at the Tom of Finland Foundation (2024).

Content Warning

This exhibition contains nudity and explicit descriptions of sex. Parental and viewer discretion is advised. If you have any questions please contact us at info@sanmeigallery.co.uk

Events

Devotions: The Films of James Broughton and Joel Singer

Thursday 31 October 2024, 7pm

An evening of short films and discussion programmed by artist-filmmaker Sam Ashby in conjunction with his current exhibition, Sanctuary, hosted by Studio Voltaire.

Queer Mysticism: Harry Cocks and Sam Ashby in Conversation

Saturday 9 November 2024, 3pm

A conversation between artist Sam Ashby and academic Harry Cocks in conjunction with Ashby’s current exhibition Sanctuary at San Mei Gallery.

Press

For enquiries, further information and high resolution images, please contact eleanor@sanmeigallery.co.uk.

Accompanying Essay

Academic Harry Cocks has written an essay expanding on the themes and research behind Sam Ashby’s exhibition, exploring traditions of queer mysticism across North America and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Image Gallery

Accessibility

San Mei Gallery is located on the ground floor with step-free access. Our building has one gender-neutral toilet with step-free access, however, we regret that it is currently not fully accessible. If you have any specific access requirements, please contact us at info@sanmeigallery.co.uk.

Credits

Sanctuary
A film by Sam Ashby
Camera: Sam Ashby & Mariah Garnett
Editor: Pablo Mazzolo
Featuring: Ron Athey, Guy Baldwin, Ganymede Cupbearer, Revé Douglas, Jack Fritscher, Hunter Hargraves, Mark Hemry, Rob Hopcke, Guy Seiler

Support

Sanctuary is commissioned by San Mei Gallery, supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and using public funding by the National Lottery throughfrom Arts Council England. Drinks at the opening preview are kindly provided by Brixton Brewery.