About

My name is Siân Barlow.

I am an artist, a woman, a mother, a sister, a daughter. I also work as a personal assistant and carer to a disabled woman. Like so many women, I find I am, and must be, a warrior.

I arrived in Wales as a baby, coming with my family from the squat in Brixton where I was born in 1977, and I have since made my life and my home here. I am of mixed English and Mauritian heritage. My identity is marked by a sense of profound belonging here, and at the same time by discontinuity and separation. I deeply value, and am grateful for, the gifts of the Welsh language and culture, but I also have a sense in which my identity is precarious and complex.

I make art work about how we are in the world, and about how we can be when we are at our best. About how we perceive and imagine; and about the joy, intensity and vulnerability of giving open attention to the world around us. I prefer to ask questions, leaving answers open.

I make books – a book is an object which creates its own space and rhythm. It is also an object which can create a change. My work is an offering to you, to create a space, an opening. You and I have much in common: we are here in the amazing, complex, painful and beautiful world, right now in this moment.

You can find my work on the projects page of this website. You can also subscribe to my blog or my Instagram if you want to join me on the journey.