At Buro247 Middle East, we are committed to showcasing and celebrating the extraordinary talent in the Arab world. With our column, #BuroSpotlights, we bring you stories of pioneering artists, innovative designers, tech trailblazers, cinematic visionaries, sports stars, and more.
This week, #BuroSpotlights Palestinian-Lebanese sculpture artist Rawan Sirry.
At first glance, Rawan Sirry’s sculptures play a familiar trick on the eye. Chocolate bars glisten as if freshly unwrapped. Lollipops shine with an almost syrupy gloss. You instinctively lean closer, tempted to confirm what you already suspect. None of it is edible. That tension between desire and denial is precisely where Sirry’s work lives, and why it lingers long after you look away.
Based in Dubai, Sirry has carved out a distinctive sculptural language rooted in hyper-realism and emotional memory. Her practice centers on confectionery forms, executed with startling precision using polymer clay, acrylics, and mixed media. The surfaces gleam. The textures convince.
Her path to sculpture was not linear. With a background in graphic design and advertising, Sirry spent years working within commercial structures that valued output over intuition. The shift came unexpectedly, through a moment of domestic play. Given a piece of clay by her daughter, she instinctively shaped it into a piece of chocolate. That unplanned gesture became the foundation of her practice.
What makes Sirry’s sculptures compelling is not technical realism alone, but the emotional logic behind them. Many of her pieces reference things she was denied as a child. Candy becomes symbolic rather than decorative. It stands for restriction, desire, and the thrill of wanting what is off-limits.
Recurring motifs appear throughout her practice, most notably lips. Sculpted in glossy reds and fleshy pinks. They are also a universal shorthand for desire, making them one of the most direct and effective forms in her visual vocabulary.
Rawan Sirry’s sculptures are entirely handmade and deliberately singular. She does not replicate works, even when revisiting familiar motifs. Each piece develops intuitively, guided by touch rather than sketches or fixed plans. The process is slow and exacting. Hours of shaping are followed by baking, layering, and surface refinement. She works alone and discards pieces that do not provoke an immediate emotional response. Desire, for her, is a non-negotiable criterion.
There is also a strong psychological current running through Rawan Sirry’s practice. Many of her ideas originate from dreams, which she describes as vivid and persistent. Mistakes are embraced rather than corrected. An uneven edge or unexpected texture often becomes central to the final composition. The work gains depth through these interruptions, resisting perfection in favor of presence.
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