Siobhán McGibbon
Decomposition is Devotion and the Land Longs for You

Siobhán McGibbon

Decomposition is Devotion and the Land Longs for You

2 March to 25 July 2026

Studio open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday

This residency supports the development of new work towards my exhibition at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in July 2026. Working in a studio reconfigured as a sterile biomaterials lab, I will cultivate and form mycelium-based sculptures and tests, using controlled conditions to study how living matter grows, binds, collapses, and transforms. The residency prioritises material research and process, including incubation, observation, refinement, and failure as method.

My practice explores multispecies intimacy and ecological entanglement, with a particular focus on decomposition as a love language. I understand devotion as something expressed through breakdown, nourishment, and exchange. Rather than treating decay as an endpoint, I approach it as an active relationship, where human intention and more-than-human agency meet, and fungi operate as collaborators that challenge ideas of permanence, authorship, and clean boundaries.

During the residency I will be mentored by mycologist Catherine Euale, supporting both the technical and conceptual development of the work. As part of the public programme, I will host a conversation with Euale, inviting audiences into accessible discussion around mycelium materials, fungal time, and what it means to practise care through transformation.

Dr Siobhan McGibbon (she/her) is a visual artist, researcher and world-builder whose transdisciplinary practice spans art, science and narrative. Working across sculpture, animation, drawing, text, permaculture and participatory installation, she created the world of Xenophon in 2015 to explore post-Anthropocene futures. Xenophon unfolds through collaborations with practitioners across disciplines and is activated in galleries, labs, gardens, site-responsive and virtual contexts. Recent and selected presentations include CCA Derry (2025), Pallas and Galway Arts Centre (2023), and The Science Gallery and TULCA (2017). McGibbon holds a PhD (TUS, 2020) and a BA Fine Art (GMIT, 2009).

https://www.instagram.com/siobhan_mcgibbon/?hl=en

www.siobhanmcgibbon.com

Siobhán has been awarded a Visual Artist bursary, Arts Council Ireland and Project award, Arts Council Ireland

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre acknowledges the financial support of The Arts Council  / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in making these residencies possible.