Power. Print. Perception.

GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading PA, 2025

In Power. Print. Perception., Sarah Sipling’s work focuses on ideas of protest, power, and perception. She creates large, colorful mixed media pieces that express a sense of hope and a call for change within the political and social realms. By incorporating various forms of printmaking to build physically layered works, Sipling suggests how governmental shifts affect collective well-being. Each layer references a current or historical protest, the political and often brutal police responses, and the many facets of necessary societal transformation. Her collage method reflects a fragmented and partisan society, fueled by widespread feelings of fear and exclusion. For Sipling, these visual interventions symbolize the process of assembling truth and rejecting misinformation or “fake news.”

Sipling’s signature silkscreen “veins” of color bind each layer of her work together. She views these veins as symbols of life’s pulse—embodying both the force of power and the necessity of resistance. The veins also represent the interconnectedness of the world: the global circulation that spread a pandemic to every corner of the earth and the digital networks that rapidly shared footage of George Floyd’s murder, sparking worldwide protest.

Currently, Sipling is exploring the role of individuals in shaping government and society. She investigates how protests—past and present—serve as essential tools for speaking out and demanding reform. The constant presence of movements such as Black Lives Matter, climate activism, women’s rights, and immigrant rights forms the layered foundation of her prints.

Sipling also references the landscape in her work, exposing the darker histories embedded within the physical beauty and ideals of a nation. As she critiques ongoing destructive political narratives, she continues to seek the potential for protest and the promise of meaningful change.