“You know what I think? I think that we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.” – Norman Bates – ‘Psycho’ (1960)

Paddy O’Dwyer’s work is concerned with the domestic space and the psychological austerity of our living patterns. The theme of hysteria and feminist theory influence and inform the pathos of the work as do artists who deal with ideas of ‘hysteria’ and the uncanny which are more often associated with the female psyche. O’Dwyer considers the male psyche in the private space and his paintings evoke dualities of safety and captivity, intimacy and violence, value and waste. What are the psycho-social implications for the contemporary male when pride has been founded on patriarchal ideals which are redundant and unsustainable for society to evolve?