Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Katie Whelan 

 
BA [Hons] Art

Katie Whelan is a visual artist who works mainly in the mediums of drawing and painting. Her practice primarily deals with contemporary human experiences and relationships. She has exhibited in a number of student shows, including Perceived Dimensions (2018), at IMMA, Making the Intangible Tangible (2019) at the United Arts Club, and an online exhibit entitled High Heart (2021) with Pallas Projects. She recently took part in an IADT Art and Applied Psychology collaboration to create an exhibit for the Herbert Wing of St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Art is Good Medicine (2021).

Project Description

This series of drawings explores moments of physical touch, in the everyday. Each image depicts a moment of fellowship, with a particular focus on points of contact person to person. The purpose of Katie’s work is to exhibit simple acts of touch as an important and inherent form of human connection and communication.
This series focuses on the social aspects of touch and the reassurance and comfort that an act involving body to body contact can give to a person. There is also a particular focus on the interaction of bodies and the spaces between figures even when pressed close together.
The identities of the persons drawn within these images are purposefully uncertain allowing the viewer to focus solely on the moments illustrated. The introduction of colour into these drawings is a remark on the warmth and brightness that these acts can bring to a person’s life.