Set at Grace Belgravia, a spa and medical centre for women, the site-specific exhibition explored the notion of the body, internal desires, the role of the female and abstraction through different media such as ceramics by Clementine Keith-Roach, canvas paintings by Merve İşeri, drawings by Sofia Stevi and sewn textiles by Güneş Terkol. Through variations of material, medium, texture and techniques, each of the four artists’ practices and works overlapped through intimacy and form.

The title of the exhibition Ladies’ Paradise was inspired by Émile Zola’s eleventh novel in the Rougon Macquart series titled Au Bonheur des Dames, which takes place in a department store in the mid- 19th century. The modernisation of the store and the different roles of women in the book are intertwined with the structure of the exhibition, which focused on femininity, the body, differing levels of society, gender and identity politics.

Photo Credit: Fenella Mett