Alice Máselníková had a Zoom studio visit with the Irish painter, Sian Costello as a preparation fo the artist’s upcoming solo exhibition with Flat Octopus.
The emerging Irish artist Sian Costello (*1998, lives and works in Limerick) will be showing with Flat Octopus later this year, and for some months we have kept regular updates about her work developed specifically for the exhibition. I simply love Sian’s work and her unflinching passion for painting and experimenting with different mediums, the female body, performative drawing and thorough research of the topics she explores. She has been looking at the traditional feminine softness seen in the works of the old masters and reiterating them as a strong lived experience, simultaneously tender and bold.
Her practice is very close to my heart and I get this strong urge to flee my computer and paint more after each of our talks.
In today’s session we got to see in action a large camera obscura box that Sian has built in her workspace at Wickham Street Studios Combining performance and painting the setup takes inspiration from the intimacy of a dressing room, body dressing, and undressing; an intimacy that is broken, turned upside down and revealed to the gaze. More to come – keep your eyes on Sian in the meantime.
Flat Octopus 