Bobby Redmond
Self-directed Residency
Bobby Redmond is an Irish artist based in East London. The Argo residency was a unique opportunity to deepen and expand his exploration of queer intimacy and identity through a focused, immersive experience. His work investigates the emotional textures of queer life - desire, domesticity, partnership - and he is particularly interested in the cultural and historical contexts that shape these experiences.
During his stay he worked on portraits of his husband to explore marriage symbolism and digital intimacy. While looking at symbolism and history he looked at Greek Mythology - in particular the story of Apollo and Hyacinthus as a way of thinking through queer love, loss, and transformation.
He also painted gay bars in Athens as an homage to queer spaces worldwide, treating them as vital sites of welcome, continuity, and community. This body of work was strongly influenced by the poetry of C. P. Cavafy, whose writing is defiant, lustful, nostalgic, and hedonistic.
Extending this focus on community, Redmond produced portraits of local queer people as a way of forging connections and marking a specific moment in time, in dialogue with artists such as David Hockney, Alice Neel, and Yannis Tsarouchis.
Lastly, he explored a project called Applied Romance where he used found photos from Eleonas flea market to create queer collages.
