A movie art director from Mayo is to unveil a striking new series of paintings in which national flags are created from some of the most iconic speeches in history.<\/p>\n
Gary McGinty, who was nominated last year for a USA Art Directors Guild Award for his work on the Netflix hit series Wednesday, has painted the flags of Ireland, the UK, US, Canada, South Africa and India, using words drawn from groundbreaking addresses.<\/p>\n
His \u2018Spoken State\u2019 pieces include the 1916 Proclamation, alongside speeches by John F Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King\u2019s \u2018I Have a Dream\u2019.<\/p>\n
The artwork will be unveiled at Art Evolve, a major contemporary fair which returns to Dublin\u2019s RDS from this Friday to Sunday. (Mar 27-29)<\/p>\n
Members of the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA) will join forces with other established galleries and individual artists to showcase the best of the Irish art scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver time, the meaning of historic speeches evolves,\u201d said Achill Island native McGinty, 57.<\/p>\n
\u201cP\u00e1draig Pearse\u2019s 1916 Proclamation, once a revolutionary declaration, is now seen as a founding text of modern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cGandhi\u2019s \u2018Do or Die\u2019 began as a call for Indian independence but today symbolises non-violent resistance, while Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s \u2018We are Here\u2019 became an instant emblem of defiance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn times of crisis we can return to these words to see what they can still teach us.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGinty trained as an architect and has divided his career between film art direction and painting.<\/p>\n
He began working in film in 1995, drawing the set of the GPO for the blockbuster drama Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts.<\/p>\n
He later worked as art director on Ridley Scott\u2019s The Last Duel, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Disney\u2019s Disenchanted and his latest film project, Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy, starring Jack Reynor, is due for release next month.<\/p>\n
But away from film sets, McGinty, now based in Rathmines, Dublin, devotes his time to paintings in his home studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this collection, I want people to reconnect with flags and start a new conversation about them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to see the paintings spark a broader discussion about speeches like the 1916 Proclamation \u2014 texts we see so often that we sometimes stop really reading them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the inspiration for his artistic life began on Achill Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life changed when I was ten years old and a neighbour arrived with a set of watercolour paints and said, \u2018I think you need these more than I do.\u2019 I\u2019ve been painting ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n