Billy Byrne
Bio
While living flowers usually depict ideas of hope and happiness, dead ones suggest the opposite; decay and depression. Using real flowers in my work reflect the complexities of being human. I am interested in the struggles and the contradictions. The beauty, and, simultaneously the dark wells of the mind. I use Pansy Violas because of their link to the Shakespeare play Hamlet: Ophelia, unravelled by grief, says, “And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” The name itself comes from the French pensée, meaning “thought.”
Using gold references Kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken vessels with lacquer and gold. It’s philosophy values resilience, accepting fragility and taking pride in the imperfect. Things can and do fall apart. Each piece is named after a mental‑health medication, sounding like Greek or Latin names — as if the figures in my work form my own pantheon, the gods of mental health.