Siobhán Hapaska’s work forges discordant connections, incorporating objects that range from palm trees to buffalo skulls, goat skins to old socks. She has cited influences as everything from aspirin to uncluttered space, from rock pools to clean windows.
In 2007 Outset supported Hapaska’s residency at Camden Arts Centre, culminating in her first solo exhibition in London for twelve years. While the work that Hapaska presented at her first major solo show, Saint Christopher Legless at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1995 had highly finished metallic fibreglass surfaces, these abstracted accretions of texture in her new work always suggest the organic. Reflecting on what has changed, in her work Dry Spring (image no. 4) she explores themes of fertility and potential, using copper pipes, artificial flowers, jute rope and resin. Meanwhile, Becoming Cyclonic (image no. 2) is a reworking of an earlier sculpture titled Far (1995) evokes a monstrous animal-like form, covered in goatskin, fur and agate armour. Hapaska’s use and variation of different surfaces and textures suggests the coexistence of – seemingly contradictory – concepts of ugly and beautiful, peace and war, love and hate. Thus, ultimately, the artist lets the viewer explore and interpret according to their imagination.
