Kitty L M McKay - Bittersweet Daze
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 communitie 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.
