Artist captures Cork's tiny qualities

Whether one finds Cork city beautiful or not, there’s no denying the place has character, and one local artist is capturing that character building by tiny building.

Since earlier this year, local man Sean Duggan, aka @tiny.cork, has been turning heads online with his incredibly detailed and accurate miniature replicas of the frontages of some of Cork city’s most interesting buildings.

Handmade using mainly paper, plastic, foam, cardboard, clay, and plaster, each model takes Sean between two to three months to complete. In preparation for a new project, Sean takes dozens of photos which he uses to create a digital 3D design before breaking the design back down into 2D templates and shapes that he can then start cutting and carving.

“When I started posting pictures of my work online, I was surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the response was,” Sean told the Cork Independent.

He added: “I think for Irish people, and especially Cork people, there’s a really tight relationship between physical places around them and their own identity.”

A keen model enthusiast since childhood, Sean spent all his pocket money on Airfix kits, Warhammer, and model trains. When he wasn’t making models, he was perusing the shelves of shops like Mark’s Models, Other Realms, and Art & Hobby in Cork city.

As adulthood crept in, Sean’s hobbies faded away almost completely until a few years ago, in an effort to find a way to properly relax and leave his work at the door, he rediscovered his passion for making models.

“Doing something creative with my hands, painting and filing and assembling tiny pieces, was the one thing that I found really helped my brain to ‘switch off’ on evenings and weekends,” explained Sean.

Around the same time, he and his wife got a dog and Sean suddenly found himself out and about for up to three walks a day in the city.

He said: “I started noticing more. More interesting architecture. Spots of dereliction and decay mixed in between brand new construction. Gaps where there used to be shops and cafes I once knew, and new places that were opening up.

“So, I started trying to capture some of that, using the techniques and materials I already had from making models from kits. It turned out to be so satisfying to figure out how to recreate something local, from scratch, but in paper or plastic - while making it’s worth of display as a piece of art in its own right.”

When choosing a building for his next project, Sean tends to value character and evocative qualities above all else.

“Sometimes that character is in the building itself - in the faded paint and the plaster and the weeds growing out of the gutters,” he said.

“Walk down any street in Cork and there’s an entire gallery of unique textures, colours and shapes just sitting there in plain sight.

“Other places make good models not because of the structure itself, but because it’s just a place that really holds a lot of memory for people. I recently finished a model of BDSM (now called The Black Dog) which has been on my list for ages. It’s such a nice building now that it’s been done up, but I modelled it the way it was a few years ago - the way it looked in my fondest memories of it,” said Sean.

Looking ahead, said he’d love to exhibit his work some day and has recently started accepting commissions for pieces, something he never expected!

“I’ve had so many requests from people asking for miniature keepsakes of their family homes or businesses, so I’m still trying to figure out how I can balance that demand with the long list of projects I want to make for myself. That’s a lovely problem to have,” said Sean.

To see Sean’s incredible work, follow @tiny.cork on Instagram or take a look at his u/TinyCork Reddit page.