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Bittersweet Daze - Kitty L M McKay


  • Dry Water Arts Centre The Workshop Wellwood Street Amble, NE65 0FG (map)

Bittersweet Daze - Opening Event Friday 8th November 6.00pm - 7.15pm

Kitty L M McKay -originally from Leicestershire, is a North-East based artist

currently working in the intersection between painting and sculpture.

Mckay takes monochromatic memories of leisure and transforms them into bold

nostalgic works.

Using plasticine, McKay conveys the playfulness of forgotten leisure and attempts to physically reconstruct memories as the mind would.She uses archival material, collective memories, and personal archives as reference.

Her works are bright, textured and colourful, bringing a feeling of melancholic joy for

times gone. She is particularly drawn to lost ‘Third Spaces’ places where communities

came together away from domestic and working settings. These spaces are

becoming less and less accessible to the British public

In this series Mckay explores the duality of loss and hope found in lost lidos dotted

around the U.K. From Tynemouth’s old coastal pool, to a Welsh Village’s lido these sites

were once widespread across the U.K. then slowly fell out of favour. Despite their

atmosphere of decay, there is a poetic nature to their lost grandeur and the ghosts of

recreation that haunt them.

Earlier Event: 25 October
Artist Talk - Nel Hume
Later Event: 22 November
Artist Talk - Kitty L M McKay