INNER VOICES
KAREN PERRY
SERLACHIUS RESIDENCY – FINLAND 2025
INNER VOICES
This series of art works is the result of my research into the historical condition of women, specifically in Mexico. It is an abstract exploration that alludes to “the dubious mental state that being a woman suggests.” Working with yarn and graphite is a way of representing the contrast between activities that were permitted to us - because they were women's work - versus prohibited materials such as graphite, which is used for writing and institutional education aimed at, and initially exclusively for men.
Textiles predate writing, since the word text comes from the Latin textus, meaning fabric. The evolution of language and the use of the word textus in different European languages ended up being texto in Spanish, texte in French, testo in Italian, text in English and text in German. Knit is the action of wefting or interlacing a thread to build a stable structure that can also be “read” by those who know the language. In the same way, interlaced words form structures that have a meaning, again for those who know the meaning of the elements that compose it.
VOCES
INTERNAS
Esta serie de obras es resultado de una investigación personal sobre la condición histórica de la mujer, especialmente en México. Se trata de una exploración abstracta que alude al “dudoso estado mental que sugiere ser mujer”.
Trabajar con estambre y grafito es una forma de representar el contraste entre actividades que nos eran permitidas –por ser trabajo de mujeres- versus materiales prohibidos como el grafito, que se utiliza para la escritura y la educación institucional dirigida, en un principio, exclusivamente a los hombres.
El textil es anterior a la escritura, pues la palabra texto proviene del latín textus, que significa textil. La evolución del lenguaje y el uso de la palabra textus en diferentes lenguas europeas terminó siendo texto en español, texte en francés, testo en italiano, text en inglés y text en alemán. Tejer es la acción de unir o entrelazar un hilo para construir una estructura estable que también puede ser “leída” por quienes conocen el lenguaje. De la misma manera, las palabras entrelazadas forman estructuras que tienen un significado, nuevamente, para quienes conocen el significado de los elementos que la componen.
“Domestic Landscape”
Polyester fabric, wood and graphite poder. 240x230x40cm, 2025
Graphite pencils, since their invention in the 16th century, have been a basic tool in the teaching of writing. The cheapness of their manufacture can be related to the plurality of literacy; however, this plurality did not always protect women, since ancient times, great Greco-Roman thinkers and later in the 18th century considered them “scientifically intellectually inferior beings”. Thus, traditionally, instruction for women was not intellectual, but rather it was manual and domestic work that was institutionalized as a form of education. In this way, both the sheets with lines to practice writing and the pencils were elements foreign to female instruction.
We did not achieve the status of citizens until just the last century. In Mexico, it was not until 1953 that we constitutionally received the dignified status of citizen with the official right to receive education.
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Natural wool, polyester fabric and graphite poder. 200x220cm,2025.
Warped Mind”
Los lápices de grafito, desde su invención en el siglo XVI, han sido una herramienta básica en la enseñanza de la escritura.
La baratura de su fabricación puede relacionarse con la pluralidad de alfabetizaciones; sin embargo, esta pluralidad no siempre protegió a las mujeres, pues desde la antigüedad, grandes pensadores grecorromanos y posteriormente en el siglo XVIII las consideraban “seres científicamente intelectualmente inferiores”; de esta manera, tanto las hojas rayadas, para practicar la escritura, como los lápices eran elementos ajenos a la instrucción femenina.
Tradicionalmente, la instrucción para las mujeres no era intelectual, sino más bien era el trabajo manual y doméstico
el que se institucionalizaba como forma de educación.
No alcanzamos el estatus de ciudadanas hasta apenas el siglo pasado, en México, fue hasta 1953 que recibimos constitucionalmente la dignificada condición de ciudadana con el derecho oficial de recibir educación.
“Weft of Silence”
Linen and natural wool. 139x190, 2025.
In Mexico, before the Spanish invasion, textile creation was exclusively for women and therefore performed within the domestic space. The techniques and designs were the narrative plot of their own vision of the world, an inner world that, lacking words, was filled with sounds, songs, whispers and endless soliloquies of inner voices, which did not belong to anyone but themselves and which, on occasions, the confinement, the involuntary meditation of the repetitive act of weaving, led them to sharpen their intuition, to develop forms of knowledge that, because they were considered illegitimate, were the instrument for an enforceable sentence by those who refused the possibility that a brilliant mind had the form of a woman.
“Mute Knots” Natural wool and cotton. 38x58x5cm, 2025.
En México, antes de la invasión española, la creación textil era exclusiva de las mujeres y por tanto se realizaba dentro del espacio doméstico. Las técnicas y los diseños eran la trama narrativa de su propia visión del mundo, un mundo interior que, carente de palabras, se llenaba de sonidos, canciones, susurros e interminables soliloquios de voces interiores, que no pertenecían a nadie más que a ellas mismas y que, en ocasiones, el encierro, la meditación involuntaria del acto repetitivo de tejer, las llevaba a agudizar su intuición, a desarrollar formas de conocimiento que, por considerarse ilegítimas, eran el instrumento para una sentencia ejecutable por parte de quienes negaban la posibilidad de que una mente brillante tuviera forma de mujer.
“Borderline” Linen and natural wool. 55x330x10cm, 2025.
“Knitting thoughts” Cotton, natural wool and graphite poder. 60x40x10cm, 2025.
Karen Perry
Mexico 1984. Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts at the National School of Arts "La Esmeralda" in Mexico City. She has received grants from the National System of Art Creators in 2018-2021, 2024-2026 in sculpture, and Young Creators Grant from the National Fund for Culture and Arts in 2012-2013, 2015-2016. Perry has accompanied her professional production as a teacher since 2006 at different public Universities, and currently works as a professor of the Bachelor of Arts and Design at the National Autonomous University of Mexico campus Morelia. Her work has been shown in multiple individual and collective exhibitions in Mexico, Chile, the USA, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Republic of South Korea and China. She has been in Artist in Residency at “Serlachius” Finland, “Viarco” Portugal, “BBAX Gallery” in the USA and “ARTELES Creative Center” Finland.
Contact: http://www.karenperryrioja.com karenperryrioja@gmail.com Instagram: @Karen.Perry.sculptor
THANKS TO
SERLACHIUS RESIDENCY
VIARCO Fábrica Portuguesa de Lápis
ANITA HANNUNEN
JACOBO ALONSO
The entire work was carried out entirely in January 2025 at Serlachius Residence, Mänttä, Finland.
Toda la obra presente fue desarrollada en Enero 2025, en la Residencia Serlachius, Mänttä, Finlandia.
