Art Detectives, 20 October 2006 - 25 March 2007

There’s chaos in the kitchen! And the longer you look at this lively drawing, the more you’ll see. Sharp eyes can find: - two sharp objects for cutting - not one, but two living creatures - something needed for opening locked doors - lots of different fruit and vegetables - how many can you find?

Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award Exhibition, 19 August-5 September 1993

Sylvia Siddell is a feminist artist who has drawn the imagery used in her work from her immediate domestic environment. Within the tangle of everyday objects is a sharp wit and many allegorical or symbolic meanings as she comments on the joys, sorrows, struggles and frustrations of a woman's life.

In 'The Banquet' she uses many of the objects found in the traditional still life, but here the ingredients of the banquet are cut, nibbled by a huge wasp, and crowded into an unnatural and nightmarish turbulence. The electric cable intertwines through the composition like a snake; the chicken breast is brutally pierced by the fork. Instead of a simple drawing of food, we see how the dramas enacted in the domestic arena echo the seething violence of the natural world where constant change and renewal emerge from turbulence and decay.