Who do memories belong to? Slovak artist Monika Pascoe Mikyšková’s exhibition is dedicated to St. John’s wort and to her grandmother, who collected it and was a model of femininity and inner strength in the artist’s childhood.
A meadow on a hill, we are bending over together and gathering yellow flowers. I am at my grandmother’s side, I am four or five years old. I ask what the herbs are used for, and my grandmother answers, for cleansing. This is the oldest memory I have of us together. A year after her son died, she is gathering St. John’s wort at our cottage. — Monika Pascoe Mikyšková
Perforate St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum, known colloquially in Czech as enchanter or St. John’s blood) is known for its use as a nerve calmer, a sleep aid, and an antidepressant. The word hypericum comes from the Greek hyper (above) and eikon (icon), after a custom of hanging the herb above icons as a protection against evil. In ancient Greece and Rome, it was often burned to ward off evil spirits and diseases. When cows ate St. John’s wort in their pastures, its red fluid turned their milk pink, which people in the Middle Ages incorrectly attributed to an evil spirit possessing the cows.
Monika Pascoe Mikyšková is interested in plants and their medicinal effects. The memories of St. John’s wort thus become not just her memories, but also those of her grandmother – and, at the same time, the memories of all those who have ever gathered it.
Monika Pascoe Mikyšková lives and works in Bratislava, where she also earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. In 2004 she had a residency at Roxy Walsh’s studio at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in Great Britain. She was a finalist for the 2022 Oskár Čepan Award. In 2019 and 2023, she received a grant from the NOVUM Foundation, and in 2015, she won the Collection Invitation Prize in the Essl Art Award CEE competition. Monika Pascoe Mikyšková has long been interested in the relationship between humans and plants, plant ritual, ethnobotany, ecology, and shared more-than-human emotionality. In addition to her artistic work, she also works as an educator. She has described her work as follows: “…since nature is one of my main inspirations, I care about protecting it and support all environmental activities that aim to change the current climate situation. At the same time, I think that my work is based on the experience of women in the contemporary world…” She has presented her work in exhibitions at the Arosita Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Tsekh Gallery in Kyiv; the New Synagogue in Žilina; the OTS Las Cruces Research Station in Costa Rica; Kunsthalle Bratislava; the Jiří Švestka Gallery in Prague; MAK Museum in Vienna; Cursor Gallery, Center for Contemporary art Prague; Renewal Biennale Zielona Góra in Poland.
The exhibition is held at Keyhole, aspace for gardening, cultivating, playing and art.
Main Partners:
Acknowledgement of cooperation: JAF HOLZ spol. s r.o., Ferona, a.s., BALSHOP
Special thanks: Johanna Grigarová, Dionýz Troskó