Curated by Margarita Cappock 

Passage charts a two-hundred-year arc of Dublin’s watery history, shaped by the wetlands. At its heart, the project traces Dublin’s layered identities, exploring water through cultural, historical, and anthropological perspectives. It reimagines the history of Dublin’s waterways, the relationship between submerged sites, shipwrecks, and Dublin’s history as a wetland.

The show comprises new video, sculpture, drawing, and sound works, as well as a performance by acclaimed composer Mel Mercier on 16th January 2026.
The work calls to mind ancient  myths surrounding the rivers and seas as well their raw and fragile beauty.

The presentation of Passage at The Lab is the culmination of a major series of international exhibitions and events by artist Siobhán McDonald, including the Biennale des Arts et de l’Océan 2025, in Nice 2025; The United Nations Ocean Conference Villa Arson, Nice (2025), RHA Dublin (2025), and the James Joyce Summer School in Trieste (2025). Forthcoming exhibitions and events include Art Basel, Paris (2025), Dublin Port (2025),The Camargo Foundation (2026,) Taylor Galleries (2026), and Future Lab at WAAG in Amsterdam (2026-2027).

Siobhán McDonald’s practice draws attention to contemporary topics dealing with air, breath and atmospheric phenomena, weaving scientific knowledge into her art in a poetic and thoughtful manner. Siobhán McDonald was born in New York. She lives and works in Dublin and is currently an artist in residence at Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin.

Siobhán works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. This process gives form to a range of projects which consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time. Her artworks make use of natural phenomena and technologies to stage poetic and philosophical engagements between people and their natural world.

Siobhán McDonald is the recipient of prestigious international awards, including the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS 4Water Award (2024) and the inaugural Ocean Memory Award (2022). In 2023, she received further awards through the EU Commission Alumni Award (Italy), the Alfred Kordelin Foundation Climate Whirl Award (Helsinki), and the Project Award (Ireland). Presentation highlights include solo exhibitions at venues such as Biennale des Arts et de l’Océan 2025, Villa Arson, Nice (2025); the Royal Hibernian Academy, Ireland (2025); VISUAL, Ireland (2024); The Model, Sligo (2023); Living Canvas Public Art Project, Ireland (2023); Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (2022 and 2020); Ars Electronica, Austria (2022); Centrul Cultural Clujean, Romania (2022); The Weisman Museum, USA (2022); Centre for Contemporary Art ŁAŹNIA, Poland (2022); Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2022, 2017); Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (DHMD), Germany (2022); Volta, Basel (2021); Limerick City Art Gallery (2019); and the National Trust–Fox Talbot Museum, UK (2019), among others.

Dr. Margarita Cappock is an art historian and curator with Dublin City Arts Office. She has developed and delivered major exhibition collaborations with international museums in Europe and Australia. She is a published author and a regular contributor of scholarly articles and essays to international and national exhibition publications and art journals. She has delivered guest lectures, conference papers and contributed as a discussion panellist for a diverse range of audiences in Ireland, UK, Austria, Germany, Italy, the United States, Australia and Japan.