Siobhán hapaska and the shattered medici lion

Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Frieze Magazine , January 22, 2024
Suspended in mid-air at the heart of the brutalist cavern that is the Douglas Hyde Gallery, the monumental white lion, first viewed from above as you enter the gallery, might almost be sculpted from gravity-defying marble. Closer inspection, however, reveals Medici Lion (all works 2023) to be composed of buckled-together sections of what is, in fact, 3D-printed polylactide. Hovering about half a metre above the concrete floor, this grandiose emblem of compromised majesty is tautly tethered to opposing gallery walls by an extended harness of black military webbing. Absurdly commanding, it looms over the gallerygoers circling it in the surrounding gloom.