Ruup & Form presents SIMPLING, a solo exhibition by Kerry Lemon, featuring the work of her alter-ego, MRS ROE. Rooted in the old English practice of simpling (the gathering of medicinal plants by midwives, wise women and herbalists) this exhibition explores reproductive justice and community ritual. Through performance, sculpture, drawing and installation, SIMPLING reclaims the shared knowledge and resistance of womxn, including a new collection of brass wall sculptures inspired by the artist’s recent time in Paris and the botanical aesthetics of Art Nouveau. Bridging folklore with contemporary ecological concerns, MRS ROE invites us to reconsider the enduring power of communal wisdom with embodied care in an era of environmental and social disruption.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Private View: 7th June 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: 11th June - 4th July 2025
Opening times: Wed to Sat each week 12am-6pm
Venue: Ruup & Form, 7 Tilney ct, London EC1V 9BQ
(Tube: Old St/ Barbican)
EVENTS
Sat 7th JUNE Private View 6-8pm RSVP
Thu 12th June 6.30-8.30pm Museum of the Home
Plant Knowledge as Power £20
'Woman's Weeds' with Dr Romany Reagan and the Museum of the Home
BOOKING REQUIRED
Fri 20th JUNE Artist Presentation 7-8pm
BOOKING REQUIRED
Sat 28th June 10am-12pm Herbs and Ancient Knowledge Systems
£25 Herbal Tea Making workshop with Forage Botanicals
BOOKING REQUIRED
Fri 4th July Finissage 4-6pm
BOOKING REQUIRED
FURTHER INFORMATION
MRS ROE explores what it means to be a womxn dislocated from the natural world through the lens of reproductive justice. She crafts ritualistic, eco-cultural performances that interrogate the power structures shaping femxle sexuality and reproduction.
The indigenous, medicinal plant knowledge once safeguarded by womxn has mutated into a patriarchal system of western medicine and criminalised abortion. MRS ROE employs folk ritual as a medium to re-examine this ancient knowledge and system of community care, co-existent with each other and our bacterial, animal, geological, botanical planet.
IF YOU PLANT YOUR SEED IN MY LAND THEN THE DECISION OF CULTIVATION IS MINE
MRS ROE is the performative alter-ego of artist Kerry Lemon. ROE is the artist’s (unused) married name and its use was triggered in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on the 24th June 2022.
