Emerging from Fintan Magee’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between painting, photography, and lived experience, The Travellers draws on a photograph taken by the artist in the Kyiv metro, where underground stations continue to serve as bomb shelters during the war. Depicting two children absorbed in a television programme while waiting below the city, the work captures a quiet moment in which the routines of everyday life persist amid uncertainty.
Characteristic of Magee’s recent practice, the image is deliberately blurred, dissolving the boundaries between documentation and painterly interpretation. Rather than obscuring the scene, this visual instability becomes a narrative device, evoking both movement and unease. Balancing intimacy with fragility, the work reflects on the resilience of ordinary life while reminding us that beneath moments of apparent normality lies a world shaped by conflict, impermanence, and constant change.
