Nicholas Sidarchuk

Nicholas Sidarchuk is an interdisciplinary artist based in County Kildare whose practice interrogates Ireland’s postcolonial condition, specifically examining the weaponisation of nature and seeking to make sense of the systems of control that pervade the Irish landscape.

Through a Hedge, Backwards is a multimedia installation centred on the autofictional journey of “The Visitor”. Narrated by a leprechaun, the visitor sets out on a pilgrimage seeking access to a standing stone in the care of the state. The journey towards this desired destination becomes entangled within digital and physical systems of mapping and privatisation.

The work focuses on the constructed banality of the natural world, weaving oral folklore traditions with contemporary experiences of monumental systems while mapping the effects of privatisation and virtualisation of land and culture onto the body. It materialises as a selection of freestanding sculptures and prints rendered from collected digital ephemera, photography, and screenshots.