Niall Mclaughlin BA (Hons) Fine Art 2020

My practice is based in painting and drawing. It explores my own concerns and feelings about the shifting political and social structures within the country I’ve grown up in. Through painting I converse with myself, trying to explore my own relationship with the history of this place, along with the current events and identity politics which exist in a “post-conflict Northern Ireland”. I look into the past and implore an audience to pose questions about how such a time came to be. To do this I use surreal photography sourced from the internet juxtaposed with domesticity to emphasise the ridiculous nature of some of the events. From this my work expresses a push and pull with my national identity. Often becoming a discussion in provocation and bad taste, using the contextually heavy symbols such as flags and murals explores the power of these images within the more intimate context of the home and the domestic.