Body of Knowledge by Louisa Clement
Exhibition Dates:
June 6th – July 19th, 2025
Opening Reception:
Sunday, June 8th, 12 – 5pm
Location:
Annka Kultys Gallery
472 Hackney Road
London E2 9EQ
If you find yourself in East London this summer, Body of Knowledge, Louisa Clement’s current solo exhibition at Annka Kultys Gallery, is well worth the visit — arguably one of the gallery’s most powerful shows to date.
The exhibition presents 107 close-up photographs of Clement’s own body, each paired with a laser-etched text that reflects on the shifting meaning of knowledge in an era dominated by algorithmic systems. Installed side by side in a monumental grid across two gallery walls, the images form a disorienting yet unified field — a kind of corporeal archive. From a distance, the installation reads as an abstract composition. Up close, viewers are drawn into a more intimate, bodily recognition, navigating physical fragments while grappling with their implied message.
Clement’s reflections etched onto each frame consider how intuitive, internal knowledge is increasingly overshadowed by the synthetic — by data, misinformation, and AI-generated content. She questions what we lose when we outsource memory, instinct, and judgment to machines. In her words, knowledge is not just mental — it is physical, something we carry within us. And when that bodily knowledge is distorted, our ability to think, feel, and act freely is endangered.
The exhibition also features Clement’s video work Believers (2023), an AI-generated sermon inspired by Korean religious services. Digital preachers — both male and female — appear alone or in grids, delivering a message about the body, soul, and mind. What begins as a spiritual call to connection gradually exposes its own artificiality, highlighting the paradox at the heart of Clement’s work: as algorithms replace embodied experience, they simultaneously mimic its rituals and gestures.
Together, the photographs and video create a layered, urgent reflection on how digital technologies not only mediate our understanding of truth, but also threaten to disconnect us from ourselves and one another. Clement considers this erosion of bodily knowledge to be one of the defining crises of our time — one we are only beginning to recognize.
Body of Knowledge is part of Annka Kultys Gallery’s 10th anniversary program. A summer break will follow in August, with a new space opening in Hoxton this September.
About Louisa Clement
Initially known for her photography, Clement’s practice now spans robotic sculptures, synthetic DNA, and autonomous digital forms — always returning to the tension between human presence and artificial systems. Born in Bonn in 1987 and a former master student of Andreas Gursky at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, she has exhibited internationally, with works held in major public and private collections, including Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, the Zabludowicz Collection, and MOCA Kraków.
About Annka Kultys Gallery
ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY is a hybrid commercial art project that merges physical and digital experiences. Founded by Annka Kultys in 2015/2022, the East London-based gallery has rapidly become a leading art gallery for artists, who engage with technology in both traditional and digital media.