Declan Fegan

Declan Fegan

Statement

Throughout my work I primarily use oil and acrylic paint on canvas, implementing both traditional styles of painting along with contemporary elements associated with digitally generated textures.
Visually inspired by Surrealist and postmodern artwork, my paintings act as visual context corresponding with Guy Debord’s book titled ‘Society of the Spectacle’. Debord’s book critiques the demanding requirements of capitalism that compels us to displace our lived experiences with images and media representations, escaping to a simulation-like reality. The environments featured in my paintings depict scenes where the ‘Spectacle’ is opposed and challenged according to Debord, e.g. occasions of community interaction, natural landscapes, and historic areas symbolic of socialist revolution.
I visualise this absence and the breakdown of the simulation-like reality through the incorporation of digital aesthetics, particularly the appearances of glitches commonly seen in corrupted software, such as poorly rendered textures, physics distortion, and the transparency of solid matter.

Images


Course: fine art

Year: 2024

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Photography: Seán Daly