2013: ARTIST AIMING BIG WITH HIS LIFE-SIZE LOVE/HATE STARS. 28th September 2013.
The gang's all here: Dublin artist Niall O'Loughlin with his Love/Hate artworks of Fran, Nidge, Darren and Tommy.
An artist has immortalised some of the cast of Love/Hate as frightening life-size figures.
“You can't really capture the brooding presence of characters like Nidge, Darren or Fran on small canvases, that’s why I made them full size,” Niall O'Loughlin told the Herald
The 43-year-old Dubliner admitted he even found the line-up intimidating.
“It's all in their eyes really. That's where I do the most work getting it right,” he said.
But he might face an even bigger job finding a buyer for any of his figures, which at six foot each might sit uneasily in a suburban home.
“As an artist you only think about what you want to create, not will it sell,” Niall said.
“I wanted to catch the cast together like this before more of them get killed off.”
With Niall admitting he finds the works “vaguely unsettling”, he should not be surprised that that only one gallery, the Balla Ban Art Gallery in the
Westbury Mall, has expressed an interest in exhibiting them.
“The weird thing is I think the Love/Hate characters would draw people into a gallery.
Anyone who has seen this line-up thinks it's amazing,” he said.
Hand-drawn and then painted before being blown up, Niall hopes to sell each
of the figures for €100, or the full set of four for €500.
Love/Hate returns to RTE earlier than usual on October 6.