1st BSc Hons Marine and Freshwater Biology contact: kygibeily@gmail.com
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Stitched together from a wealth of letters Alex Gibeily wrote to his children at the height of Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, this beautifully crafted story provides an insight into the pathos and fears of separation caused by the unfolding drama of war, with its many parallels to current bloody conflicts across the world. These typewritten letters are reproduced faithfully and are interwoven with original hand-drawn illustrations by his youngest grandchild, Kyra Gibeily, born more than a decade after Alex’s death.

Shedding light on the perspective of a father desperate for his children to lead a better life far from the horrors of conflict, this story is as timeless as it is timely.

Beautifully produced hardback editions available now!


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Effigies is a cohesive series of three sculptural pieces made during an art residency in the forested hinterland of Finland in 2025. What begins as inspiration soon becomes tinged with a creeping sense of dread: a growing awareness of the ireversible ways in which humans continue to reshape the landscape and habitats of once-thriving organisms. Presenting wonder and absurdism within a scientific backgrop, each sculpture in Effigies is made partially using found materials and, collectively, confront viewers with elements of nature that have been twisted by the ongoing threat of man-made change. 1. Tharn a word coined by Richard Adams in Watership Down, describes animals frozen in fear. It explores the dissonant reaction humans have to such creatures as spiders, insects, fungi and lichen – organisms that are often regarded as alien and repellent, yet vital to our eco- systems with an inherent beauty of their own. The figure’s arm merging with fungal growths and arthropod forms suggests a necessary symbiosis and collapse of boundaries between self and nature, for the survival of both. An expression of fear, apprehension and curiosity is visible on the figure’s face, allowing viewers to sit with their discomfort and biases, and consider the value of the beautiful, strange and mysterious little creatures that support our planet. 35 x 25 x12 cm. 2. Toast captures the increasingly common global devastation of wildfires. From one angle, the sculpture is a vbrant forest scene, complete with a miniature great spotted woodpecker; another angle reveals the total annihilation of this colourful scene, now hollow and charred from a sweeping wildfire. The torched textures are reference to how rising temperatures, prolonged drought and monoculture planting intensify fire frequency and devastation. Viewers are pulled into the visceral aftermath of environmental trauma and the grief of ecological loss. 30 x 15 x 12 cm 3. Better Luck Next Time features a sardonic, oversized Spanish slug (Arion vulgaris) – the poster child for invasive species – snacking on polystyrene popcorn and watching humans attempt to undo what we’ve done. It speaks to the human tendency to create problems, then scapegoat the symptoms. The human complicity in creating invasive species is underlined by integrating medical waste and found items into the piece. Kitsch, colourful and slightly grotesque, this piece critiques anthropocentric thinking and misplaced blame. Inspired by a Finnish woman’s uphill struggle against them. 40 x 20 x 15 cm.


  1. Pelagia is conceived as a guardian spirit of the oceans, casting an askance gaze past the viewer at the impending change to her marine realm and the life it sustains. The intricate patterns emerging from the edges of her face are reflections of natural forms rendered as fragile and vulnerable as the marine life endangered in our warming seas. 10 x 18 x 19 cm
  2. Last call of the Kauaʻi Ōʻō - a dreamlike interpretation of the extinct Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō, curled in grief, weeping. Its last call was recorded in 1987, a mating song unanswered, echoing the species’ final moment. Driven to extinction by anthropogenic habitat loss, invasive predators, and disease, the bird’s absence is a haunting reminder of the fragility of our world’s life and our impact on it. Ripples across the head suggest the spreading consequences of forces beyond its control. The two patches of yellow at its base and the beak’s curve recall the bird’s true form, while the rest dissolves into memory, an elegy for what is gone and what remains only in echoes and dreams. 10 x 13 x 17 cm
  3. Mystic jester stoneware 
  4. Severed hand of Om from La Planète Sauvage 1973
  5. Arbroath Smokey 
  6. Energy Vampire
  7. Wanderer after the fall of Carthage
  8. Guardian of the Forest
  9. Safe house 8 Batesian mimicry decoration


Illustrated for an Emory student newsletter, Theory of Mind depicts the brains of various species – mouse, rat, cat, bottlenose dolphin, marmoset, chimpanzee and human – with their brain stems connected to the branches of an ancient yew tree. The coloured regions highlight the visual, auditory and somatosensory areas within each brain, revealing both similarities and differences across species. This scientifically grounded artwork invites viewers to develop empathy and a deeper understanding of non-human animals, recognising that they possess distinct brain structures, leading to different cognitive experiences. This recognition is set to become increasingly vital as life on Earth faces the challenge of sharing diminishing resources. Graphite + digital, 29.7 x 42 cm

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A visual of a field experiment using the Merlin Bird ID app to document Finnish bird calls, illustrating the eight most commonly observed species. I translated the calls into a linguistic, lyrical mix of music and Arabic script, to fit the flow of the most recorded types of songs, calls and drums, relatively speaking. Ink + gouache


  1. Borealis 
  2. Dinnertime - but for whom? You’ve set up your cutlery, but something seems to be waiting for you and your shadow doesn’t look too friendly either. And what are the sheep doing, lining up like that in the dark?
  3. Loveliness/Watchdog - Canada sleeping and Watcher watching at midnight (geese)
  4. Deer in the Headlights 
  5. Dollhouse
  6. Ego Eclipse
  7. A Portrait of the Earl of Lemongrab 
  8. Flowers for an Ancestor
  9. Standing By



 

  1. Tjørnuvík from the WIndow
  2. Newcomer spotted/Freshmeat: a new, beautiful place - but why do they all seem to be looking at you? Ink, watercolour, thread and coloured pencil
  3. Down to the Bay (old version)
  4. the view between two doors
  5. the birds don't seem to mind the rain
  6. Sleep well, round geese
  7. guard duty
  8. honk I
  9. honk II
  10. 11. 12. charcoal studies


 

  1. sunset frog
  2. unprepared tourist
  3. septerium

 

  1. dissection
  2. vespula germanica
  3. measurements
  4. data collection
  5. samples
  6. pinned (linocut)
  7. specimen I
  8. specimen II
  9. insectageddon
  10. enlargened lithobius forficatus 
  11. paranoia cage sketch (sketch version of fabric and chicken wire life-size apparatus with surround sound speakers can step into)
  12. bug-eyed


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