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@sf_burns

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Thanks to everyone who made the third I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE so fun. We’ll be back at Cafe OTO in the New Year for more! Photos: @sf_burns by @sf_burns

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6 days ago

In the October issue, I write about not only the vitality, camaraderie and history in Salman Toor’s emerald rooms but also the alienation. I was interested in how, in more recent works, such as Fag Puddle in Vitrine, the representation breaks down – or, more precisely, the bodies seem to break down beneath the pressures of representation:

[...] Toor situates solitary young men in scenes in which those around them are engaged in playful fun, tuning into a loneliness that many queer people in major cities experience day-to-day. The drunkenness (no one paints it better) and social dynamics of the surrounding crowd serve to emphasize the separation of his sultry protagonists. In Bar Boy (2019), this sense of isolation is almost filmic: the painting picks out the titular boy wearing a soft-brimmed hat, who glances forlornly down at his phone in a room populated with a clientele enraptured by the wonder of one another..

@courtauld by @sf_burns

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8 days ago

Ahead of her performance at I’ve Seen That Face Before at Cafe OTO on Friday 2 October, Marnie Weber joins organisers Sean Burns and Nicky for a special show on NTS Radio. They discuss her career as an artist, performer and musician, as well as Nirvana, Los Angeles punk club Al’s Bar, her friendship with Mike Kelley and much more @nts_radio

I’ve Seen That Face Before takes place at Cafe OTO this Friday, featuring Marnie Weber, Nicky (ft. Sena), Samra Mayanja and Jeffrey Hinton (DJ)

Listen via the NTS website tonight!

Thanks to Isaac Hall and Phoebe Ahern, as well as Sophie and everyone at NTS + Mo and the OTO team

🎟️ £16 door / £14 advance / £10 members

→ Tickets via cafeoto.co.uk
→ Doors 7:30 pm @cafeotodalston by @sf_burns

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16 days ago

I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE RETURNS - FRI 2 OCT

Join us on Friday for the third iteration of our night at Cafe OTO, with performances from:

Marnie Weber
Nicky (ft Sena)
Samra Mayanja
Jeffrey Hinton (DJ)

🎟️ £16 door / £14 advance / £10 members

Film: Thomas D
Music: Death Awareness Cafe @i.u.r.a.n.u.s_
Socials: @yungk1m

→ Tickets via cafeoto.co.uk

→ Doors 7:30 pm @cafeotodalston

@_nickymusic @sf_burns @marnieweberstudio @newyearr_newmee @shades_of_sena @jeffreyhinton1988 taken in Café OTO by @sf_burns

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18 days ago

I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE

…is a music and performance night curated by singer-songwriter NiCKY and writer and editor Sean Burns

It is the third instalment in a quarterly residency series showcasing an eclectic line-up of artists, all experimenting at the fringes of music, visual art and performance

Join us at Cafe OTO on Friday 2 October, with performances from:

Marnie Weber
NiCKY (ft. Sena)
Samra Mayanja
Jeffrey Hinton (DJ)

🎟️ £16 door / £14 advance / £10 members

You don’t want to miss this!

→ Tickets via cafeoto.co.uk
→ Doors 7:30 pm @cafeotodalston by @sf_burns

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a month ago

FRI 2 OCT: I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE w/ MARNIE WEBER + NICKY (FT. SENA) + SAMRA MAYANJA + JEFFREY HINTON (DJ)

I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE returns to Cafe OTO for its third edition: a quarterly music and performance night curated by singer-songwriter NiCKY and writer / editor Sean Burns, showcasing queer artists working across the fringes of avant-garde music, visual art, performance, pop and nightlife.

Taking its name from the Grace Jones classic, the night draws on the organisers’ shared experience of moving through the city’s nightlife hinterlands, bars and dancefloors: places of encounter, reinvention, glamour, unease and escape.

For this edition, MARNIE WEBER makes a rare live appearance. Across a practice spanning performance, film, sculpture, collage, painting, music and costuming, Weber creates uncanny worlds suspended somewhere between fantasy and reality. At OTO she will perform a live score to her recent film House of the Whispering Rose, followed by songs from her new album Returning Home as Rose Bloom, the film’s lead character.

NICKY returns with SENA. A vital voice in London’s queer performance scene, NICKY’s emotionally charged songwriting moves between torch song and bedroom synth fantasy. SENA is a Ghanaian-born, UK-based singer whose background in classical and contemporary music meets Afrobeats, soul and jazz, with a performance practice shaped across Ghana and the UK.

SAMRA MAYANJA works across performance, writing, installation and film, with a practice that moves between theatre, clowning and live art. Her performances often begin with the absurdist impulse to search for what is lost, unfolding through improvisation, slapstick, poetic monologues and tender vocalisations. Most recently, she presented proto-clowns (almost there) at The Horse Hospital, an intimate work-in-progress.

Closing the night, London-born DJ, producer and visual artist JEFFREY HINTON draws on a lifetime inside subculture, having provided music and visuals for clubs including Circus, Cha Cha, Taboo, Anarchy, Daisy Chain and Heaven.

Poster by Harry Freegard (@harrie.bradshaw)

🎟 £14 adv / £10 members

→ Tickets via stories and cafeoto.co.uk

→ Doors 7:30pm taken in Café OTO by @sf_burns

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a month ago

Hasegawa at EAF. I’ve tried to frame these in such a way that I don’t get banned but also don’t seem prudish (because I ain’t). Accompanied by a text from superstar Christopher Whitfield, with the best opening line: In the empty space left by the absence of cock there is nothing but cock by @sf_burns

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2 months ago

Drawing on his experience as an editor at frieze magazine and as a freelance writer Sean Burns (@sf_burns) unpacks how arts publishing and criticism operate today.

Join this exploration into how artists and writers can interact, draw attention to their work, and understand the roles that shape visibility in contemporary culture.

Limited tickets available – book via link in bio to secure your spot.

5.30–7.30PM
17 Sep
Snooker Rooms by @sf_burns

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2 months ago

Leaving Oslo with a hangover and an empty bank account. Can of Ass, anyone? 🩷🩷🩷

@kimjakobsento
@davide.meneghello
@kristian.cuervo
@spettacolooslo
@morten.magnus
@fantasticamilla by @sf_burns

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2 months ago

For Everything is NOW, London-based writer and editor Sean Burns contributes a commissioned essay reflecting on the practice and legacy of Jill Westwood.

The text examines Westwood’s 1980s output across photography, Super 8 film, and performance. Burns observes the mechanics of extremity and care within her work, tracing a line from her use of domestic settings to her origins in the industrial Black Country and her band, Fistfuck. Linking this subcultural history to her present-day engagement with New Materialism, the essay positions her archival material as a foundation for alternative community and female empowerment.

Read more via the link in bio and in the exhibition.

Sean Burns is an editor and writer. He lives in London. Sean Burns was the first recipient of Giselle’s Books Get-Away Program in late 2025.

Everything is NOW is open by appointment on August 14-15. Join us for the closing of the exhibition on August 16 from 4PM in the presence of the artist. by @sf_burns

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2 months ago

Thanks to everyone who made the second I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE so fun. We’ll be back at Cafe OTO in October for more! Photos: @davide.meneghello by @sf_burns

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3 months ago

I’VE SEEN THAT FACE BEFORE RETURNS 22/07

Join us on Wednesday for the second iteration of our night at Cafe OTO, with performances from:

Death Awareness Cafe
Harold Offeh
GUIA
NiCKY
Ms.G (DJ)

🎟️ £17 door / £15 advance / £10 members

Film: @henrymills___
Socials: @yungk1m

→ Tickets via cafeoto.co.uk
→ Doors 7:30 pm @cafeotodalston by @sf_burns

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3 months ago