Fertility Fortunes
The (Mis) Conceptions
Exhibition
Jan 23-26, 2025
The Bomb Factory at Holborn, London
99 Kingsway, WC2B 6QX
Fertility Fortunes Event Programme
Jan 23 Thursday 6pm-9pm Private View
Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/misconceptions-fertility-fortunes-opening-night-tickets-1119091455669?aff=oddtdtcreator
Jan 24 Friday 10am-7pm Belief & Bodies Beyond Fertility
Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/misconceptions-belief-bodies-beyond-fertility-tickets-1119310821799?aff=oddtdtcreator
11-1pm – Session 1
Researcher Julieta Baker, Doula Emilie Rowell and Dr. Lora Adair (Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University)
Embodiment, body-mapping and fertility.
Lunch
2-3pm – Session 2
Researcher Ayesha Ali and Dr. Lora Adair (Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University) & Isabel Davis and Anya Gleizer (Project (Mis)Conceptions NHM) Misconceptions, Bodies and Contemporary Spirituality
Tea
3:30-5pm Session 3
Panel on Loss led by writer Tamarin Norwood and feminist philosopher Victoria Browne (Loughborough University, Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy).
5:30-7pm Session 4
Researcher Ayesha Ali will hold a women's circle, and share her research on contemporary British goddess cults, and the day will conclude with the screening of As You Were (2024) a creative documentary film by artist Lyndsay Mann.
Jan 25 Saturday 10am-7pm Fertile Histories
Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/misconceptions-fertile-histories-tickets-1119365003859?aff=oddtdtcreator
10am Open
Ongoing throughout the day: augmented reality artwork with accompanying text-based art workshop “Lexicons of (In)Fertility” by artist Sally Butcher
A tarot card making station will be led by artist Anna Burel. T
hese stations are drop in, and visitors can pop in and out throughout the day.
11-1pm – Session 1
Researcher and midwife Ashley Younger (Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford). A clay kintsugi (金継ぎ) workshop making, breaking, and mending votive uteri (a historical method of healing and prayer for fertility health), exploring what it means to be broken and what it can mean to mend.
Lunch
2-4pm – Session 2
Artist Tabitha Moses Embroidery workshop “Passing the Time”
Tea
4:30-5:30pm Session 3
Drop-in workshop 'Recipes and Tips for Conception, Pregnancy and Birth: Past and Present' led by Dr. Catherine Rider and Dr. Sarah Toulalan (University of Exeter)
5:30-6:30pm Session 4
Dr. Akosua Paries-Osei (Royal Holloway University and Natural History Museum, London) and author-activist Yvonne John will share a piece of spoken word, reflecting on black histories of (in)fertility and racialised historic misconceptions that continue to plague us today.
Followed by Q&A and drop in art workshops.
Jan 26 Sunday 10am-4pm Imaginative Histories
Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/imaginative-histories-tickets-1142974269809?aff=oddtdtcreator
10am Open
Ongoing throughout the day will be an augmented reality artwork with accompanying text-based art workshop “Lexicons of (In)Fertility” by artist Sally Butcher. A tarot card making station will be led by artist Anna Burel. These stations are drop in, and visitors can pop in and out throughout the day.
11am-12pm – Session 1
Dr. Isabel Davis (Natural History Museum, London) and artist Anna Burel will present their book, Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present
12-1pm Session 2
Professor Tracey Loughran (University of Essex). "The ghost child at the end of the road not taken" followed by Q&A.
Lunch
2pm – 3pm – Session 3
Public historian Dr. Julia Martins 'Between the Lines: Imagining the Readers of Early Modern Medical Recipes'
Followed by Q&A and drop in art workshops.
Because of the limited number of spaces in the creative workshops at a given time we ask for people to register in advance (tickets are all free) to keep track of numbers. Some of the workshops/talks can be intimate and possibly triggering because of their content. We want to provide a safe space and you can always step out if you need or ask organisers for support.
To celebrate our (Mis)Conceptions Card Deck, now in its completed form, as well as the launch of Conceiving Histories, this 4-day exhibition, brings together art by project artist Anna Burel, creative and embodied workshops, talks and spoken word from leading specialists working in the women's and fertility health space.
The Exhibition will showcase larger-than-life sculptures, as well as drawings from the preparation of the card deck. We will also represent artist Sally Butcher's digital AR installation work.
What is fertility for you?
A social expectation? A biological rhythm? A creative urge?
How can ideas, relationships and futures be made fertile, with or without having children?
What is it you want to know about your future? What do you know you want your future to hold? What do you still hold in doubt? Do those doubts need resolution or might they, too, be fertile?
Where have you been looking for your answers? From science? Google? God? Friends and family? Modernity or history? Nature? Your dreams? The stars?
These cards are not tarot, though they share the language of inquiry and introspection. And, instead of you posing questions of the cards, the cards ask you about how your desires and fears fit (or might learn to fit) into your world. They seek a rich inclusive conversation, with no pre-emptively shut doors.
Hold one card or draw a spread. Use the image or the words. Ask yourself, your friend or your partner.
Then shuffle the deck and ask again.