Royale Projects is proud to present What is to Cure, solo show by Karen Lofgren. This exhibition highlights the artist’s latest body of work, which builds upon a period living in the Amazon rainforest in Northern Peru and a period studying the history of ritual and belief in ancient plant medicine as a Fulbright Core Scholar in London. Lofgren’s immersive environment features objects such as The Curse and the Cure (Imperial Ghost) an epoxy resin casting of a Victoria Amazonica plant as well as geometric aluminum sculptures measured to the scale of the human body titled Pulling Through (a softer index). Pulling Through relates to ancient rituals where a patient is physically pulled through another object to create a magical barrier between them and their ailment, and “measuring and plugging”, in which sticks are measured to the scale of the body and filled with nails, hair, etc. in transferring the disease to the object. The artist examines a history of ritual in plant medicine, and questions empirical structures employed to both categorize and profiteer wild systems. From a decolonial and feminist perspective, Lofgren deconstructs the history of power and oppressed knowledge—proposing a shift in perspective to make room for questions and mysteries.

The exhibition is supported by the Fulbright US/UK Commission and Canada Council for the Arts.