WAKE II
Sam Heaton
with expanded cinema programme
20 February - 4 March 2026
Opening: Friday 20 February, 19:00
Closing: Wednesday 4 March, 17:00
Location: Scenius Gallery, Sligo
Gallery 1 (Adelaide St.): Street-facing installation, viewable 24 hours
Gallery 2: Open Monday–Friday, 10:00–17:00
Admission: Free
About the Exhibition
WAKE II presents works by Sam Heaton (UK). His practice is grounded in process, experimentation, and use. Trained in fine art painting, his earlier work explored layering and transparency. He brings this approach to fin making, where materials are built, cut, and tested over time. Each work responds to pressure and motion in fibreglass, resin, carbon, and pigment. Carbon is used to isolate flex in specific areas, while different materials are layered to activate distinct design responses. Each fin becomes a conversation between structure, flex, and flow, shaping how the body moves across the wave.
The film, WAKE, premieres on opening night as an expanded cinema experience with live music by Departures.
Sam Heaton, Sinusoid (pink/blue) & Sinusoid (yellow/orange), 2025, E-glass, fibreglass cloth, vinyester resin, pigment
Expanded Cinema
The expanded cinema programme brings moving image and live sound into a shared, real-time performance context. Documentary material is reworked through live processing, with image and audio evolving together.
Departures
Departures is an experimental trio working across guitar, percussion, and synthesis. Emerging in 2024, the group explores sound in non-traditional environments from airport lounges to industrial sites, treating space as an active acoustic condition.
Their practice centres on disruption: feedback, distortion, and evolving textures produce unstable sonic fields that shift over time.
Instagram: @departures_music_strandhill
Departures performing to the film Wake for the expanded cinema practice at Scenius.
Artist
Sam Heaton
Sam Heaton is an artist and maker based in Scotland, with a background in fine art drawing and painting. His early work explored layered compositions using materials such as perspex, informing his current approach to object-making.
Heaton’s practice now focuses on the design and production of surfboard fins, where he applies sculptural thinking and material experimentation. His development of flexible fins responds both to practical needs and to an interest in movement and form.
Drawing on principles of biomimicry, his work considers how subtle variations in structure can shape performance, creating objects that offer distinct and responsive experiences in the water.
Instagram: @finflex
Sam Heaton, AI, 2025, Wood, vinylester resin and fibreglass
Installation view, WAKE II, Scenius Gallery, 2026
Installation view, WAKE II, Scenius Gallery, 2026
Credits
Film: Ian Jermyn
Live music: Departures
Curated by Marita O’Hanlon and Ian Jermyn
With Scenius Gallery