In Memoriam Hugh O'Donnell 1978-2022

On Saturday 26 November many of us woke to the deeply sad news of the death the previous day of artist and friend-to-all Hugh O'Donnell. Hugh was a member of the Belfast-based performance art collective Bbeyond, a studio-holder at Flax, and an active campaigner for disabled and LGBTQ+ artists and access to the arts. Most importantly, when you had a conversation with Hugh you came away feeling fantastic, elated, as if you and what you were doing mattered. His loss hits hard.

I hadn't seen Hugh for ages, mostly because I hadn't been to Belfast for nearly three years and I didn't bump into him when I finally did visit again this summer. My encounters with Hugh, and often together with his partner Aaron, usually occurred when we were having a skinful at Late Night Art or after a Bbeyond performance monthly. In the interim we'd occasionally 'react' to each other's Facebook posts and that's how I knew he was okay and there. 

I didn't see enough of Hugh's solo performances. I know them through photographs and descriptions from friends who'd witnessed them or passed on their lore. In my workspace in Newcastle hangs an artwork made and gifted to me by Katrina Sheena Smyth in thanks for assisting with her final MFA performance. The room where we made 'Between Frames' in 2014 was the room in the old Orpheus building of Ulster University's Belfast School of Art in which Hugh had recently completed a residency. His performance, drawing and writing on the walls reverberated with a surprising and violent incident that had happened. A pigeon had ambled in through the open window and - if I'm recalling the story correctly - Hugh alerted security to get help to remove it, intending to set it free out the window. Instead, the member of security who responded beat the creature to death in the room then removed the body. To process the shock and needless violence, Hugh channelled this into his residency work. Katrina having seen the room before it was 'reset' for her MFA project, i.e. re-painted white, kept the writing and drawings in mind and the story came up in our work together in the same room (in part with Katrina squeezing out of the same window and sitting on the outer ledge with her legs hooked inside, then our performance being shut down by security, which led to us thinking about authority and permission: what actions were un/acceptable as art or matters of security, etc.). I'm struggling to recall if I also saw the walls as Hugh had left them while on an initial recce with Katrina, or if my visual impression is from Katrina's vivid description of what Hugh's markings had looked like (and still did underneath thick white paint). All part of the fun, really. I think we did tell Hugh back then before I first moved to Newcastle that year. This strange, contingent moment and what he did with it impacted on what we ended up doing in the same space - a space that no longer exists - as a sort of spacetime palimpsest. It has never left my thinking. Hugh didn't know that and it's a stark reminder to me to risk annoying or embarrassing people by telling them when they've influenced me in a meaningful way.

I'm so sad about the loss of Hugh, and heartbroken for his fiancé Aaron, sister Sinéad, their mum and the whole extended family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances, for Hugh became special very quickly to anyone who met him. We're all better for having known him, but boy will his loss be felt in Belfast and beyond for a long time. 

There is a fund set up by Deirdre McKenna to help cover Hugh's funeral costs and assist Aaron at this difficult time. If you can manage something, please see the page here.