Breda Lynch, Blue Dyke (2021)

Breda Lynch (Republic of Ireland, 1970)

Blue Dyke, 2021

Cyanotype digitally printed on Hahnemuhle paper

42 x 29.7 cm

Signed and numbered by the artist.

Edition of 100

Created in conjunction with the IMMA Narrow Gate exhibition 2021, in celebration of IMMA 30.

“There is an ambivalence about these works and who these folk are. On one level, the masked appearances may remind us of old pagan or folk customs of mask-making and wearing that were pervasive across Ireland, Europe, and elsewhere. Some of these traditions have persisted into twenty-first century Ireland, through the activities of the Mummers, the Straw Boys, and other folk groups that engage in reenactments of these old folk traditions.
On another level these images are about the present. These are images that have been appropriated and accumulated from fashion images distributed and circulated online. Sourced from documentation detailing clothing collections from catwalk shows by Martin Margiela, amongst others, who have a reputation for deconstructing and queering fashion. These appropriations for me are presentations of selves that explore the non-binary, genderqueer and androgyny in an emancipatory manner. Identities are simultaneously sartorial and fabulously glamorous. These Blue Dyke characters are ambivalent and ambiguous identities.
Lastly, these images visualise a utopian future. Imaginings of female and queer personalities and collectives. Cyan sci-fi phantoms of the imminent future.” – Breda Lynch