“Tout ce que j’ai vécu continue d’exister quelque part / All that I have lived continues to exist somewhere.” - Annie Ernaux, The Years (2008)
SLQS Gallery presents Au fil du temps, an exhibition of new paintings, prints and ceramics by Damaris Athene, Lexia Hachtmann and Bethany Stead, recipients of the 2025 GIRLPOWER Residency co-founded by Marcelle Joseph and Kimberly Morris.
Au fil du temps reflects on the artists’ time spent as visual archaeologists over their month-long stay in a 15th-century house in the French countryside in the South West of France. Feeling and being in the landscape inhabited by humans and more than humans, attending to its existence and transformation over time. In the ethereal world that these three artists have collectively created our very own existence as individuals and as a species is reflected through the passage of time.
The GIRLPOWER Collection and Residency
The GIRLPOWER Collection is a collecting partnership founded in 2012 between London-based independent curator Marcelle Joseph and Zurich-based lawyer and businesswoman Kimberly Morris who is currently Chief People, Technology & Services Officer at FIFA. This 50:50 collecting partnership supports female-identifying and non-binary artists through the acquisition of their work at the early stages of their careers.
In 2023, Joseph and Morris founded the GIRLPOWER Residency located in a medieval hilltop property dating back to the 13th century near Bergerac in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France. As an extension of their collection, Joseph and Morris have devised this annual one-month residency to give female-identifying and non-binary artists the space and time for research and experimentation in the hills around the Lot-Garonne rivers. The thrust of the programme emanates from the desire of GIRLPOWER Collection to extend their patronage beyond the purchase of art to personal involvement with the artists themselves. The relationship between the artist-in-residence and the host is an important aspect of this programme. The mission at the GIRLPOWER Residency is to provide early-career artists with an opportunity to slow down and centre their focus on their practice without the stress of deadlines and life in a big city. They invite artists to immerse themselves in the history and culture of the area that dates back to the Knights of Templar and to take in the breathtaking views and nature around the property. Located in the rural countryside, the GIRLPOWER Residency invites artists to engage in a quieter and more isolated environment that will ideally launch a new development in their practice.