Edith Karlson at Copperfield, London

Copperfield is pleased to host a joint exhibition project 'Calling things that don't have names' in London with

BANK, Shanghai
Blue Velvet Projects, Zürich 
Ciaccia Levi, Paris - Milan
Harlesden High Street, London 
Suprainfinit, Bucharest 
Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn
Hosted and initiated by Copperfield, London

From ‘wise women’ to ‘witches’, humanity has always held a powerful thread of female knowledge and intuition no matter how much it was hidden, beaten back or ostracised. Calling things that don't have names explores some of the ways in which a kind of contemporary female mysticism maintains and expands this knowledge through art practice.

The knowledgeable woman mixing herbs was easily cast as a witch by fearful men but what was she mixing for? How often was this in the interests of medicine, contraception, or even dyeing clothes and how much of our early medical knowledge was held in the hands of women and passed from generation to generation?

Everyone had a mother in some form. Even the most brutal dictator or the coldest businessman began life listening to the same deep beat we all did. Perhaps this is one of the first forms of knowledge passed to us. It is not for nothing that humans love rhythmic drumming, beats and bass and this threads through much of Hannah Perry’s work. While we all experienced this aspect of sound directly, it is only mothers who will ever truly know birth. From mythical creatures to storks, the iconography of Edith Karlson’s work celebrates the cult of motherhood in all its forms, subverting religious frameworks like the icon painting tradition and rendering all in jesmonite relief. Really knowing though means not only the joys and the tears, but the risks and the true mechanics – armed with which women can truly make informed decisions in relation to their own bodies.

(Written in conversation with Irina Costin, Jude Searle and Arianne Kamsteeg.)

On view until 23th November 2024.