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.
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.”
Sankey’s sculpture is in private and public collections. She is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.Speaker biographies
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.
Valeria Ceregini is an Italian art historian and visual arts curator based in Ireland. She graduated in Semiotics with an MA in Communication Science at the University of Turin and in Contemporary Art with an MA (Hons) in History of Art at the University of Genoa, later she pursued her studies attending the Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies.
In December 2022, she curated the first group exhibition in a series of events to gather the local community around the arts. Reclaiming the Arts aimed to reconnect and recreate a sense of community, reclaim the spaces in Balbriggan to facilitate human connections around creativity and togetherness. In cooperation with Our Balbriggan and Fingal County Council are expected further vibrant activities and events to reconnect people with nature and reestablish local areas as shared spaces.
From January to November 2022, acting as Curator and Programming Coordinator at the Luan Gallery Valeria curated several exhibitions and social events such as The Soul of Matter by Derick Smith and Breaking Borders featuring artists Nicola Anthony, Trudi van der Elsen, Bernadette Hopkins, Benedict Hutchinson, Myra Jago, Vukašin Nedeljković and Beata Piekarska-Daly.
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), Background: Land by Corban Walker, 400 x 250 x 200cm, Photography Paul McCarthy, Image courtesy of the artist.