18/07/24—03/08/24

Siobhán McGibbon—Netflix and Disintegrate into Nothing and Everything

Opening night: 6-8pm Thursday 18th July

Exhibition continues: Friday 19th July - Saturday 3rd August

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Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Siobhán McGibbon—Netflix and Disintegrate into Nothing and Everything, the fifth exhibition of our 2024 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.

The exhibition transports viewers into the world of Xenophon, where they will encounter the Xenothorpians, a fluid species that commune and mutate with living and non-living entities to adapt to the Anthropocene. Their hybridisations provide a backdrop from which new stories emerge- a tongue-in-cheek approach to the problem of humans. This new chapter is a multi-species romance told in three parts.

The sculptural installation; Netflix and Disintegrate into Nothing and Everything (part 1), is an invitation to engage in intimate relations, beyond the species and the sexual. The title refers to a popular euphemism for sexual activity while alluding to the steaming hot togetherness of compost. The work is driven by the question of queer multispecies desire, can loving beyond protocol result in more relational choices that disrupt human-centred practices in the garden.

To re-think garden relations this love story broadens sexuality to include how we inhabit and interact. The project positions the unkempt; weeds, hedgerows, and meadows as queer sites of desire where gender-bending cohabitors embrace diversity and fluidity, and rhizomes disrupt normative reproduction. Counter to this are the manicured, weeded, overgrazed, cropped sites controlled & depleted by human desire.

The narrative evolved from the artist's recent inquiry into pesticides, where she became Xenothorpian and merged with Japanese knotweed in the garden. As the story unfolds, McGibbon continues to mutate with the vegetal and develop a romance beyond species-centric relations, entering a polyamorous relationship with her partner and the garden.

The work explores the critical and creative potential of material storytelling to imbue narrative and stimulate new thinking. Elements of the installation are cast with natural materials from the artist's sea edge garden. These compostable transformations function as a potential bridge & physical manifestation of this speculative project; perpetually mutating, absorbing and disintegrating, blurring the boundaries between the garden actors and ultimately returning to the earth.

This multi-species wooing scenario engages with ecology, speculative vegetation, permaculture and the absurdness of human dating culture to playfully draw connections between entangled garden actors. The day's eye, commonly known as the daisy, opens its petals to the sun to seduce pollinators with its sweet aroma, while humans gaze at screens to seek copulation. The Gunnera Manicata brings 'big dick energy' with their magnificent seed pods and invasive rhizomes, while men pose with fish to display their masculinity.

Event:

Multi-species speed dating

Thursday, August 1st, 7-8pm

Limited numbers - 20 max

You are invited to a speed dating event, beyond the species and the sexual. Participants are encouraged to bring their partners, plant, rock, dog etc. This is an opportunity to get to know others better.

Biography:

Dr. Siobhan McGibbon (she/her) is a Visual Artist, Researcher and World-builder with a transdisciplinary, art, science and narrative practice. Her expression merges sculpture, animation, drawing, text, permaculture and participatory installations. McGibbon created the world of Xenophon in 2015 to query post-Anthropocene futures. The world unfolds with each body of work, collaborating and researching with practitioners in specific fields to build the narrative. The narrative continues to evolve and inform her practice. Xenophon is activated in multiple contexts; galleries, labs, gardens, site-specific and virtual interventions. Including; Galway Arts Centre (2023), Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2021), Sirius Arts Centre (2019), Triskel Arts Centre (2018), The Science Gallery (2017), TULCA (2017), The LAB (2017), Millennium Court Arts Centre (2016) and Galway City Museum (2015).

@siobhan_mcgibbon

1ID: Dark pink background. Read on the centre: Siobhán McGibbon. Dark pink font highlighted in black. Read small on the bottom: July 18th - August 3rd. Black font.

2ID: Digital image depicting a plant against an abstract red background. "X" symbol on the left side of the plant and a "loveheart" symbol on the right side, reminiscient of the Tinder "swipe" interface.