Love Beyond the Species and the Sexual

“Love Beyond the Species and the Sexual” is a thought-provoking solo exhibition by Cork visual artist Siobhán McGibbon, presented at the Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen, Ireland. The exhibition, which runs from July 26 to September 19, 2026, is a chapter from McGibbon’s ongoing “Xenophon” project. It merges fiction, science, and sculpture to delve into themes of love, desire, and intimacy in a multi-species context, proposing new forms of sensory and material storytelling that envision queer, multi-species romances involving elements like fungal networks, insects, and woodland processes.

The exhibition unfolds across three distinct acts, guiding audiences from the artist's garden into the ecologies and communities of Myross Woods, Leap. These acts include 'Netflix and Disintegrate into Nothing and Everything', which explores multi-species desire; 'Love Is Blindly Reaching Out Rhizoids and Anchoring Them to a Rock', examining how popular culture shapes intimacy with both human and more-than-human lives; and 'Decomposition is Devotion and the Land Longs for You', which reinterprets decomposition as a profound form of love language.

Through sculpture, scent, sound, mycelium, biomaterials, and participatory installations, McGibbon invites attendees to consider the woodland as an active partner in loving acts of merging and decay. The exhibition is complemented by a public engagement program featuring talks, sensory events, audio experiences, and accessible tours, offering a unique opportunity to participate in a speculative multi-species relationship counselling session.