Siobhan McTaggart’s work begins with observation, but it rarely stays there. What she encounters – whether through news, lived experience, or memory – tends to stay with her, building over time until it needs to be processed.

Art, for her, is how that happens.

“Creating… is my language and output,” she says.

That sense of necessity runs through her work, from her climate-focused pieces to her storyboards centred on conflict, and across the range of mediums she works within – from digital illustration to prosthetics and film.

Growing up with an awareness of damage

The work GUILTY didn’t emerge from a single moment. It developed over time, shaped by a long-standing relationship with the natural world.

“Since childhood, I have held a fascination, love and respect for the natural world,” she explains.

That early connection was paired with a growing awareness of harm – not just in abstract terms, but through visible, repeated examples.

“From large oil spills… cruelty in our food chain systems… deforestation, climate instability, pollution… and the hostility of manmade infrastructures making it impossible… for other life forms to simply even exist.”

Over time, that awareness shifted into something more personal.

“It was some years later I gained the awareness that living within modern society meant I was contributing to that harm.”

That contradiction – care alongside complicity – became the starting point for the work.

Moving away from statistics

Rather than approaching climate through data, McTaggart focused on how people respond to it.

She spoke with others to understand the range of perspectives around her.

“Some deeply aware… some actively advocating… some indifferent, and some who viewed climate action as an exaggerated woe or falsity.”

What became clear was that information alone wasn’t enough to connect people.

“I needed to… create a statement people could empathically understand rather than statistically.”

That thinking carries directly into the composition of GUILTY, where a child becomes the focal point of the image.

“The first one is… passing down the burden of what we’ve failed to do and what we have done.”

The work is grounded in lived experience – including time spent working with children – and the question of what kind of world they are inheriting.

“I thought, if it’s bad for me, how bad will it be for them?”

Living inside the system

One of the central tensions in McTaggart’s work is the difficulty of separating individual action from larger systems.

“You grieve for the world, but you also live in a system where you feed into that at the same time.”

That applies not just to large-scale issues like climate, but to everyday realities – infrastructure, consumption, and the way environments are shaped.

She points to simple observations: manicured lawns that act as “deserts” for biodiversity, or small disruptions to natural processes caused by built environments.

These aren’t presented as isolated problems, but as part of a broader system that is difficult to step outside of.

“It’s such a larger thing than just… recycling or being greener… you’re really born into this sort of system.”

That scale – and the lack of clear solutions – is what gives the work its weight.

Processing conflict and media exposure

Alongside climate, McTaggart’s work also engages with conflict and the way it is experienced through media.

“We’re exposed to so much trauma… and we consume that on a daily basis,” she says.

Often, that exposure goes unspoken in everyday life.

“You don’t really talk about them… so going home and making a piece… is my way of making noise.”

Her storyboards, in particular, return to war as a subject – not in a stylised or heroic sense, but as a way of examining human behaviour under pressure.

“It’s a very chaotic environment… it’s brutal… and because it’s so brutal, I think it emphasises someone’s humanness.”

What interests her is the contrast between expectation and reality.

“When you really look at war, you actually see vulnerability… you see emotions, you see fear.”