Katherine Sankey’s hand-made apparatuses wrestle with what she describes as the absurdity, humour and horror of our relationship with our planetary host.
One of the main premises of this exhibition derives from the feminist theorist and physicist Karen Barad, who outlines how organic cells have been permeated by the radiation of the nuclear age. The creation of the atom bomb fused particle physics, technology, biology, nature and the planet to the experience of being human. Through her practice, Sankey seeks to explore Barad’s theories on the atomic age and its impact on the natural world.
As part of EarthLab: living matters, Sankey presents Coral-ations, a new suite of hand-made ceramic modules. Conceived on a different scale to the larger sculpture Sankey has become known for, Coral-ations links considerations of bio-mimesis, i.e. the process of living creatures mimicking the form, colour and posture of their surroundings, to modular domestic forms. As with the world of coral, outside and inside are interwoven, much like our own, human bodies. By contrast, Sankey’s plumbed-wood sculpture uses living plant tissue and human supply lines.
Describing this exhibition Katherine notes, “I engage in the geo-feminist conversation about what we gouge and suck out of the planet. My practice considers how the human extractive machine of supply and power connects physically and psychologically into the living sites of the world and ourselves.”
Artist bio:
Katherine Sankey (born in Paris, France) grew up between Sydney, Belfast and Paris and has been based in Dublin, Ireland since 1997. Her recent exhibitions include ‘an atom bomb in each morsel of life’ The Lab, Dublin; ‘SANKEY | WALKER’ a solo/collaborative exhibition with Corban Walker at The Dock, Carrick-on Shannon; ‘Hydrozomes’ PALLAS P/S AIP, Dublin and ‘Containment Chthonic 2’, RUA RED, Blanchardstown. Selected group exhibitions include ‘Worlds of Their Own’ PLATFORM 21, 4 person show at Draíocht, Blanchardstown – where she was AIR Artist in Residence; ‘Woman in the Machine’, Visual, Carlow; ‘Palimpsest’ with 5 Lamps Festival and at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. In 2020 she was invited artist in 190th RHA Annual Exhibition and won the Solo Award in the RUA RED Winter Show. In 2019, TULCA – ‘Tactical Magic’, 189th RHA Annual and, ‘CAST’, 4 person show at Luan Gallery, Athlone, 2018.
Sankey was recipient of the Fire Station Artists’ Studios Sculpture Award in 2020 and gave a Plinth Politics lecture at the RHA. In 2021 & 22 Sankey received the Arts Council of Ireland Bursary. Also in 2021, she received the Agility Award, the DCC Visual Art Bursary and her sculpture was acquired by the Arts Council of Ireland Collection. Sankey’s artworks are in private collections in Ireland, Europe and Australia.
Sankey’s sculpture is in private and public collections. She is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
Image: 01. Katherine Sankey, Host, 2023, Tree roots, chair, plumbing, metal screw-in pins, emergency thermal blanket, black theatre paint, electrical components and tape, old stomatoscope (dental mirror).
02. Installation view of Katherine Sankey: Earthlab: living matters
03. Katherine Sankey, Earth Lab 3, 4, 5 (detail), 2023, Wood, plumbing, water, glass, electrical components, tape. Dimensions variable.
