Three Threads

I grew up on Achill Island—a peripheral Atlantic vantage point where language, memory, and landscape directly shape how statehood is understood.

I trained as an architect at DIT Dublin, learning structural precision, spatial discipline, and how physical form holds cultural meaning.

For 25 years, I have worked a Film Art Director on major international productions (Michael Collins, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, Netflix’s Wednesday, Apple TV’s Foundation). Managing visual hierarchy at vast scale taught me how national mythologies are built frame by frame.

Spoken State is the convergence of these three disciplines.

A man standing inside an art exhibition or gallery. Behind him are colorful art pieces based on the American flag, Canadian flag, and other national symbols, created with text. The display is titled 'Gary MC Ginty Spoken State'. The man is wearing a black shirt and has a lanyard around his neck. In front of him is a table with artwork cards and a sign indicating it is related to original ink drawings priced at 125.

Spoken State, Artevolve, RDS Dublin, March 2026

The Work

A 24-piece global archive of hand-painted political and historic speech flags, fabricated on industrial 915mm Dibond aluminium panels.

Each panel is transcribed verbatim from the history-defining speech that forged that sovereign state. De Gaulle spoke France into resistance. Gandhi spoke India into independence. Mandela spoke South Africa toward reconciliation. Zelensky spoke Ukraine’s defiance into the global consciousness.

Language does not merely describe nations; it constitutes them.

The work operates on a double visual axis: at a distance, the viewer encounters the bold color field of a national flag; moving closer, the macro surface dissolves into the handwritten, verbatim text of historical power.

Nine original panels are complete; fifteen are in studio production.

Conceptual Lineage

Spoken State operates within a distinct conceptual genealogy of text and structural language: Joseph Kosuth’s linguistic definitions, Lawrence Weiner’s public text, Jenny Holzer’s truisms, Adrian Piper’s direct address, and Glenn Ligon’s material parsing of identity and words.

The project asserts that sovereignty is linguistic before it is territorial. To analyze how nations speak to themselves is to analyze the mechanics of global power.

Patronage & Archival Acquisition

The Spoken State archive is realised through collectors.

Acquisitions of limited Collector Editions directly fund the ongoing fabrication and studio production of the complete 24-piece physical archive. Collectors do not merely acquire a print—they directly enable the realization of the full international collection.

Gary McGinty

Dublin & Achill Island