Sasha Sykes

Sasha Sykes (b.1976) is an Irish artist and sculptural furniture maker who works with acrylics and resins to explore, manipulate, and challenge the material language of the natural world.

Sasha’s work revolves around exposing and re-framing foraged and collected material – from simple life forms such as algae to complex structures such as bird’s nests – which she encapsulates in hand-cast resin to deliver an enviable level of technical perfection.

Having trained as an architect, her work is infused with a strong sense of form and composition which alongside the organic and natural materials defines the pieces she makes.

Sasha’s work has steadily increased in ambition and scale over the past 20 years, and is now featured in several important private and public collections including three significant pieces in the National Museum of Ireland (the Carlow Chair with woodland materials, The Wall screen inspired by Eileen Grey and stone walls of Leinster, and the As I Am Now chimneypiece referencing the decay of Georgian Ireland)

In 2015 Sasha broke new ground with a collection of cast bird nests in a sold-out show entitled Caliology (the word refers to the Victorian hobby of collecting bird’s nests) at the Oliver Sears Gallery in Dublin. Recent pieces include the 40-panel Gyre screen with seaweeds, the eight-panel folding screen Bloom! containing over fifty types of flower, and a fantastical re-interpretation of Shiro Kuramata’s iconic Miss Blanche chair based on a walk through an Irish country ditch.

Sasha’s work lives in the gaps between the superficialities, nurturing the hidden spaces that we tend not to see. Her pieces are both engaging and beautiful, but also offer a compelling commentary on human habit.

“My work is primarily influenced by the scale, approach and aesthetic of the Irish landscape. I like to explore the cycle of life and decay, and the dichotomy of fragility and preservation. I am particularly interested in mankind’s relationship with our surroundings, and expressing the nature of that interaction is central to my work. I like to work with unusual organic and locally found materials that tell intimate stories about the physical locality and expose man’s interaction with the natural habitat”

Sasha has work in numerous private and public collections including the National Museum of Ireland (Collins Barracks) and the Office of Public Works, and has been selected as part of the DCCOI Portfolio 2019/20