Walking through the Etruscan tombs in Italy you see imagery from mid-6th century BCE meant to depict not only the tomb owner's life but the family, society and mythology that surrounded them at their time of death. The imagery meant to depict an antiquated past is now used to speak to the present due to their commitment to craft and preservation. These tombs have outlived centuries of war, the fall and rise of civilizations, dictatorships and the unforgiving entropy of time. The symbolic becomes a means to manifest what cannot be spoken, transferred, or envisioned, time traveling to speak directly to the present, and to us.

 

         Katibelle Sharkey engages in iconography and design fragments of our present time in hopes of communicating with an unfore- seen future. Using stone to withstand the ages, she sees her sculptures in 3050 in a glass case or on a floating pedestal or in a Museum on Mars with an imagined etymology of why these strange stone objects were made into existence. Using icons riddled with the residue of historical significance, and contemporary culture – the holy and the commonplace – to create a visceral mysticism surrounding her art. The symbolism is familiar to our culture yet uncanny in its application. Creating ornament within the visual lexicon her work, which is all-pervasive yet highly personal in its meaning, in the hopes to unify present culture and speak to an unknowing future.

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For more information about her work, or for inquiries email: katibelleshark@gmail.com