HOME: Kathy Tynan
Kathy Tynan makes paintings which focus on often overlooked aspects of her own everyday urban and domestic environments, seeking out moments within daily routines where details of the familiar become illuminated.
These paintings reveal the intimacies of everyday urban life in inner city Dublin, as the city’s rapidly changing landscape means that many of their subtle, offbeat histories are in the process of disappearing. These hidden narratives exist in old buildings, local wildlife, foliage, stonework, and the local inhabitants themselves, and Tynan’s prioritise the energy of a given moment over correctness of representation. They capture the ambiguity of changing light or a shift in weather patterns to reflect the transience of a seemingly solid scene.
In Temple of High Day, the swirling clouds and gentle tones of the urban skyline evoke an ambience of quietude, of the city as a new day begins, while In Sllence for a Spellcaptures the calm atmosphere for a local café; a jacket is slung over a chair, an empty table is littered with leftover cups and cutlery, and a solitary customer is glimpsed in a mirror reflection. For Tynan, such paintings have a sense of urgency and playfulness, with her painterly technique highlighting a desire to preserve those components of the concrete, external world which form our shared experiences and sense of identity.