The Feminist Rose

May 9th-16th 2022

The Garden Museum -London

Installation comprising of three main sculpted exhibits, which are hand crafted hybrid rose/stiletto shoes artefacts . The installation by Jo Cope explores parallels made between the lifecycle of the rose (bud, bloom, decay) and the stages of a women’s life. The design of the central piece comprises a critical response to the French philosopher George Bataille’s alternative Language of Flowers (1927). Bataille believed that flowers were repugnant and paradoxical. Singling out the rose (as the most romanticised of flowers) he declared that once the petals were stripped away, only a ‘sordid tuft’ remains.

Words by curator of Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion - Amy de la Haye.

Project invited by Garden Museum curator Emma House as an official part of London Craft Week.