Oisín Byrne

Oisín Byrne works across film, writing, painting and performance. Seeking to unravel the way in which language steers society, Byrne uses these different mediums to express personal stories, fictional fragments, and sentiments of queer release. Developing both ‘intimate and expanded portraiture’ as the artist puts it, his experimental films traverse public and private experiences by entangling the ways in which individuals are perceived societally, and the way they view themselves or are understood by their peers. Dizzying, dreamy, and lyrical, these films reside in a distinctly poetic setting, with the influence of Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas’s diaristic, intimate filmmaking tecniques. Byrne’s drawings and paintings echo the sense of instability developed in his films. Repeatedly returning to classical still life compositions, Byrne renders vases of flowers wilting in concrete, bright colours— the high-spirited palette juxtaposing the faded beauty of their petals. A constant throughout Byrne’s practice is a commitment to community and collaboration, with reference to the immense comfort it brings the artist and the way in which it fuels his work.