Emma Brennan and Thomas Wells—The House of Atreus

9 May-23 May 2026

Overview

The House of Atreus* is a collaborative project by Emma Brennan and Thomas Wells exploring how working class architecture reflects contemporary social and moral systems. This partnering of experiences intersects gendered labour practices, working-class identity and the entanglement of domestic and industrial spaces. 

Drawing on their collective social histories such as migrations of Irish workers across UK industrial cities, the housing crisis, tax incentives for tech giants, the post pandemic cost of living crisis and post Celtic Tiger recession, the project positions labour in all its forms as both subject and material. It engages with hierarchies that continue to shape cultural value systems in Ireland and the UK, while situating the live body inside architectures of gender, class, and capital. 

The House of Atreus confronts how identity, labour, and space are constructed and contested under capitalism. The action leaves behind a sculptural residue that transforms the performance site into a charged hybrid of architectures. First performed as part of FIX25, live art biennale, Belfast and succeeded by a longer form project at Pallas Projects Dublin as one of their Artist-Initiated Projects 2026. 

Using site and time as materials, this iteration of The House of Atreus incorporates modes of facilitation, discussion, performative and sculptural elements and residue from past iterations to build a framework on which the project can evolve over the 3 week exhibition timeline.