absurdity
absurdity is an ongoing project that distils complex experiences into forms that are comical yet unsettling. Individual works are based on events experienced by Sylvia during her attachment to a Federal Government Taskforce when she was a Financial Controller, first captured in an illustrated book in 2015.
Set in the City of Beige, this book explores the rigid routines and contradictions of bureaucratic life. Following a serious injury, Sylvia returned to the project in 2025, modelling the drawings in clay as part of her rehabilitation. What started as therapy grew into an expansive cross-medium project.
Ceramic sculptures
A selection of works updated regularly. Five further sculptures are in progress.
Ceramic sculptures
Glazed ceramic · dimensions variable · from €700
About some of the sculptures
The bully has a blood-red head and towers over a smaller figure who looks up and says, “i’m sorry that you’re a bully.” The bully is threatening yet ridiculous and surprisingly beautiful. The work also carries another meaning: the person being bullied recognises that the bully may once have been bullied themselves.
“I give my ceramic sculptures speech bubbles so that they can express their thoughts.”
The see-saw is no more stages a scene of separation and the loss of fun. Two figures sit on separate timber bases, gripping their bars and facing each other, but they remain static and their shared balance is gone. One figure speaks through a speech bubble: “the see-saw is no more.” The character is commenting on how a once lively children’s apparatus has been removed from playgrounds. This work is a reminder of how risk is sometimes poorly managed by dismantling what once created exchange.
i don’t walk in them examines sometimes unfair workplace and cultural expectations for women through a sculpture wearing exaggerated high heels that would be impossible to walk in.
These ceramic works are playful and imperfect, yet they carry weight. Together they expose the silliness and contradictions of everyday life and social systems. Through them we can laugh and talk about what shapes us and the problems we share. In doing so, we open the possibility of change.
In this project
Paintings
The paintings from absurdity translate the personalities and situations from the drawings and stories into large-scale works on canvas. The characters appear in individual paintings at a scale that commands the room.
New paintings are in progress and will be added as they are completed.
Drawings
The drawings from absurdity are made with textas on paper, a medium typically associated with children. Each drawing accompanies a story from the book, giving visual form to these laugh out loud moments.
“Textas just seemed the best medium to depict these absurd stories and using this medium enhanced my mindset. “
Over 60 works · Texta on paper · 32 × 24 cm · mounted on paper 40 × 30 cm
A selection of works updated regularly
Drawings on paper
Texta on paper · 32 × 24 cm · mounted on paper· 40 × 30 cm · from €700 unframed
In this project
The book
The absurdity project began as a non-fiction book retelling stories about Sylvia’s time working with a Government Taskforce. The Taskforce was formed to lock down a multi-billion dollar project to reform an essential part of society.
Set in the City of Beige, the book traces the tension between the individual and the faceless bureaucracy through the people Sylvia works with. Mila trails musk perfume layered over cigarette smoke. Lin clutters every inbox with endless emails. Henry the astrophysicist runs the Taskforce’s model on an Excel spreadsheet that does not reconcile. MICHAEL YELLS through every meeting as if volume itself were authority. The Taskforce and the Federal Department are never named and their location is left blank, so the setting shifts from one office onto a universal stage.
Depictions of other absurd moments relating to everyday life that happened during this assignment are also interspersed throughout the book.
absurdity is a collection of stories, drawings and observations that can be read from start to finish, or they can be read as single stories as you jump around the book.
For collectors
Works from absurdity are available across all mediums and scales. Individual works start from €700 unframed.
Enquire about a workFor galleries and curators
absurdity can be presented across all four mediums or as a focused selection. The cross-medium nature of the project allows flexible configurations for different spaces. Exhibition proposals, studio visits and loans are welcome.
Discuss an exhibition