Filial Love is an intimate exhibition that brings together sculpture, video and wall-mounted works to explore nature through the lens of familial bonds.

Sasha Sykes has drawn deeply from her 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 exhibition is anchored by The Keeping, a life-size sculptural cloak composed of flowers in resin, 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 museum and private collections and has been described by critics as “a harmonious blend of the organic and the sublime.”

The works in this show incorporate foraged plants, dried and embedded over two years. Inspired by the tradition of cloaks handed from mother to daughter at the time of marriage, The Keeping invites us to consider ideas around ownership and nurturing. Composed entirely of plant material from Jessica’s garden, it reflects time invested, craftsmanship and caring attention. The series of wall roundels and the Filial Love video piece extend the narrative, but The Keeping remains the emotional core - the embodiment of love for a mother, for a daughter and for the earth itself.