Free admission, booking not necessary.
Artist Sasha Sykes will be joined by IMMA Exhibition Curator Sean Kissane to discuss Sasha’s current show Filial Love in the RHA Friends Room. Join us for an informal discussion in the exhibition space to learn about the meaning and making of Filial Love.
Filial Love is an intimate exhibition that brings together sculpture, video and wall-mounted works to explore nature through the lens of familial bonds. The exhibition is anchored by a freestanding central installation: a full-length, human-scaled, floral resin cloak, positioned in dialogue with a granite boulder. These elements form a meditation on protection, labour and enduring care – personal, generational and ecological.
Using nature as her canvas, Sykes embeds organic materials in resin to create works that are both ethereal and grounded, blending meticulous craftsmanship with emotional resonance. Her practice, widely celebrated for its innovative technique and poetic sensibility, is represented in international museums and private collections and has been described by critics as “a harmonious blend of the organic and the sublime.”
Filial Love draws deeply from the artist’s relationship with both her 85-year-old mother, Jessica, and her celebrated garden in Carlow. Throughout Sasha’s childhood, Jessica’s life’s work was constant tending – always with a bucket or pot in hand; a quiet, ongoing labour of care that continues even as roles subtly shift over time.
The works in this show incorporate foraged plants, dried and embedded over two years. Inspired by the tradition of cloaks handed down from mother to daughter at the time of marriage, the central installation functions as a surround: protective, enveloping and reassuring. Composed entirely of plant material from Jessica’s garden, it reflects time invested, craftsmanship and nurturing attention. The series of wall roundels and the Filial Love video piece extend the narrative, but the installation remains the emotional core – the embodiment of love for a mother, for a daughter and for the earth itself.
She is represented by Oliver Sears Gallery (Dublin) and Liz O’Brien Gallery (NYC).
