Making Space: MRS ROE
Kerry Lemon
Every year Fabrica makes its space available to artists to test new ground in their practice, opening up the possibility to use the space in imaginative ways and experiment with new ways of working.
This October, artist Kerry Lemon will be developing her current work-in-progress, MRS ROE in the gallery.
Conceived as a multi-screen video installation and performance MRS ROE explores the social and political history of birth control and abortion, in particular the shift in women’s agency in decision making in different parts of the world. And how this shift sits alongside an erosion of common and specifically female knowledge of abortive native herbs.
MRS ROE is Kerry’s response to the recent Roe v Wade overturn in the USA. She describes the work as “a violent reaction to the historical criminalisation of abortion that explores female dislocation from nature via the lost eco-cultural heritage of abortive native herbs”.
At Fabrica, Kerry will be working on the layout of the installation which comprises film, photographic and made objects, and how performative elements can function within it. And she will be developing the narrative around her piece through a discussion with herbalists and feminist historians.
Kerry is best known for her monumental sculptures which seek to connect audiences to the natural world. Her studio practice focuses on the commonality between womxn and plants and she uses the term ‘womxn’ with a 'X' is inclusive of trans and nonbinary women.
The residency will include an Artist Talk + Q&A on Thursday 12 October. Find out more here.
About The Artist
Kerry Lemon creates site-specific artworks in response to local plant life, landscape and histories. Her practice is research-led and aims to connect the viewer to the natural world in order to examine their own role within the Anthropocene. She is driven by scientific collaboration and is a certified B Corporation committed to a sustainable practice. Her practice includes sculpture, painting, film, photography and performance, exploring the commonality of womxn and flora.
“Kerry Lemon’s artwork is deeply interconnected with the local ecosystems which both inform and host the work. Each piece draws on extensive research into specific neighborhoods, highlighting the flora and fauna of each area in intimate small-scale works, or reintroducing into towns and cities traces of the plants and insects that might be thriving there were it not for the necessity of pavements and buildings.
Ranging from sculptures, collages, lights, furniture, paving and cladding, her pieces unfold across a web of interrelated materials, images, and objects. They exist simultaneously as an ecosystem of their own and as a ghostly spectre of the delicately balanced variety of species which we know is under threat from climate breakdown, pollution, and development.”
Anna Souter, Independent Curator
“MRS ROE explores the redaction of Roe v Wade and the history of abortion. Through this project I am seeking the historical indigenous and site-specific knowledge of abortive native herbs to explore the current dislocation of womxn from nature. It is a deeply personal exploration of a practice of community abortive care, our patriarchal health care system and society and what it means to be a womxn connected to the earth with the potential to create human life.”
