HEX is an ongoing series of ceramic sculptures exploring nationalism, authoritarianism, conflict and collective myth-making through a cast of recurring hybrid figures that function as contemporary effigies. Emerging in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the atmosphere of fear, disbelief and outrage surrounding it, the works transform political unease into allegorical sculptural form. While rooted in those events, the series has evolved into a broader examination of the symbolic mechanisms through which societies construct identities, sustain ideologies and justify violence.

Overview

Paddy Hartley’s ongoing Hex series explores nationalism, authoritarianism, conflict and collective myth-making through a cast of recurring hybrid figures that function as contemporary effigies. Emerging initially in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the atmosphere of fear, disbelief and outrage surrounding it, the works transform emotional and political unease into allegorical form.

Part accusation, part catharsis and part warning, these strange and often wounded beings draw upon traditions of ritual objects, carnival grotesques, satirical illustration and pseudo religious effigies. Their fractured anatomies combine militaristic references, nationalist symbolism, devotional imagery and dark humour, reflecting the contradictions, absurdities and dangers of contemporary political culture. While rooted in specific geopolitical events, the sculptures resist functioning as direct caricature. Instead, they operate as symbolic acts of reckoning directed toward systems of aggression, propaganda, authoritarianism and the personalities that sustain them.

The making of the works serves as both personal catharsis and cultural response. Created in the shadow of war and escalating global instability, the sculptures embody the emotional residue of witnessing brutality, misinformation and performative nationalism played out on an international stage. Through processes of accumulation, distortion and hybridisation, Hartley transforms outrage, grief and disbelief into materially dense sculptural forms that oscillate between the comic, the grotesque and the mock-devotional.

Across the series, individual figures accumulate into larger symbolic populations, reflecting the mechanisms through which political identities, national myths and collective anxieties are formed and sustained.

Selected Exhibitions

Sculpture North, 2026

Selected works:
You Do It To Yourself, Just You. You and No One Else
Neither Divine Nor Disaster

Context and Influences

The series is informed by a range of artistic and historical influences, including the satirical wartime illustrations of W. Heath Robinson, the anti-war works of Francisco de Goya, the paintings of George Grosz and the ceramic sculptures of Richard Notkin. Echoes of medieval grotesques, reliquaries and votive objects also permeate the work, situating the sculptures within longer histories of symbolic resistance, political satire and ritualised image-making.