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Siobhan Tarr
Born 1965
Lives and works in Bad Oldesloe, Germany
www.siobhan-tarr.de
Siobhan Tarr’s work is a celebration of the mundane, an investigation into the
value of mass-produced second-hand crockery, cheap and cheerful porcelain
fi gures and the humble bathroom tile. A material which is often overlooked, Tarr
deconstructs them into fragments by cutting, nipping and sanding and then
reassembles the tesserae into portraits and assemblages.
Siobhan likes to smash up all manner of porcelain and crockery items into a
chaotic mass of broken pieces. It is then her task to rework these elements
into other compositions mounted on wooden boards. Using this method
of transfi guration, it is Tarr’s aim to at once challenge the viewer’s original
perception of and relationship to the material, and explore how the value of
the objects is affected through their reworking.
Tomorrow’s Mystery, It’s all about the story, Destination Unknown and Out there
Somewhere all come from a series of works which were inspired by the cabinet
card photographs (mounted photographs produced c.1870-1910) and 16th
-18th century portrait miniatures and their use of the intimate format. What
interests Tarr about such items is the single image of the person that survives
through time, often without identity, without the memory or information of their
life. In this work the anonymous characters have been isolated, respectively
frozen in time by the enclosure of the contrasting backdrop of ornately
landscaped, decorated vintage china plates.
SIOBHAN TARR has exhibited extensively both throughout Europe and Internationally,
selected exhibitions include; Artgeschoss, Wolfenbüttel, Germany (2014), Jaw Spring, Village
Hall Gallery, Wimbledon, London (2014), Und was machen wir morgen?, Galerie am Kocher,
Künzelsau, Germany (2013), Academy, Arte Postale, Akedemie der Künste Berlin, Germany
(2013), Hidebird - part of the E17 Trail, London, UK (2012), Semper-Verde, Frauenmuseum, Bonn,
Germany (2012), Magnet Open Art Project, Concord, N.H. USA (2011), Light Bite, Nottingham
City, UK (2011), There is Beauty in the City, Ezcurdia Gallery, Gijón, Spain (2010), Elbart im
alten Elbtunnel, Hamburg, Germany (2009) and Internationaler Mutter-Gipfel, Karlsuhe,
Germany (2008).

Above: It’s all about the story, 2014, Porcelain,
ceramic tile, laser decals on MDF.
h: 24cm w: 17.5cm d: 1.5cm, Artist’s Collection.
Right: Destination Unknown, 2014, Porcelain,
ceramic tile, laser decals on MDF.
h: 24cm w: 17.5cm d: 1.5cm, Artist’s Collection.

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