Seek, Dundalk
Year 2021
Title Still life with a torn portrait of Oliver Plunkett
St. Oliver Plunkett was the last Irish to be canonised and last victim of the "Popish plot". He lived and died during Cromwell's conquest of Ireland and was hanged, drawn, and quartered for treason, falsely accused to conspire with French soldiers to invade English lands and “promoting the Roman faith".
The piece faces the building under which Plunkett was detained before being sent to London to face trial and execution.
Edward Luttrell's 17th Century portrait of Plunkett sets the center stage of the still life composition that tells a story of which context is a fundamental trait, as well as using concepts at the core of the vanitas theme (of which the iconoclast approach over Plunkett's canvas could be considered as a variation) such as transience of life and certainty of death to create a parallel to the similar ephemeral characteristic of urban art.