Tereza Bušková, known for her public projects that bring together multi-national folk traditions and diverse local groups, will present a new exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall titled Mothers without Hands.

The exhibition will include headdresses, ceremonial crowns and costumes co-created with women in England and Czechia through collective making and baking workshops alongside a major video work encompassing footage of participatory processional performances and new photographic prints by the artist. It will also feature site-specific soap drawings inspired by the practice of soap painting on windows in Moravia, Czechia. 

“ We are delighted to welcome Tereza Bušková and Mothers without Hands to The New Art Gallery Walsall. It reflects our commitment to bringing high-quality contemporary art to Walsall and providing opportunities for residents and visitors to engage with inspiring and thought-provoking cultural experiences. “

Councillor Matt Eason, Portfolio Holder for Culture, Health and Wellbeing
Walsall Council

“ I would like to empower women who have experienced or are experiencing sexual and domestic violence, this kind of abuse and the invisibility and stigma attached are things that need to be talked about more. My aim with Mothers without Hands is to offer support and a form of protection through collective making and sharing.”
The exhibition takes its title from The Girl Without Hands, a 1200-year-old fairy tale collected and revised by the Brothers Grimm. Featuring a girl whose hands are cut off and magically restored, it is a story not only about patriarchal oppression, persecution, violation and trauma, but also survival, strength and healing.
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Artist Tereza Bušková

The project is inspired by an ancient Czech custom known as Ježíškovy matičky, which coincides with the Easter holidays. Both a religious and pagan ceremony traditionally led by two ‘Madonnas’ who carry a sculpture of Christ on the cross, Beloved Mothers of Christ celebrates the abundance of new life that comes with spring. It is also said to have been employed both as a form of protest and a means of protection by local women who had been raped by the men they worked for and their apprentices in nearby villages. Bušková’s reinterpretation of this uniquely Moravian ritual sees Christ replaced by a Sklenovska Matička (Beloved Mother), an intricately braided figure made from leaven dough symbolising womanhood and motherhood and a recurring motif that centres women and girls at the heart the exhibition.

Mothers without Hands is curated by Dr Nicola Baird and presents the culmination of a long-term international project initiated and developed by Bušková involving diverse communities in Folkestone, Prague, Brno, Erdington and Walsall who were empowered through creative workshops and public processions aimed at raising awareness of violence against women and girls.

“ It has been a privilege to curate this exhibition, the culmination of what has been an ambitious, inclusive, international and multidisciplinary project which has involved a whole range of creatives as well as collective making within communities and public processional performances. The result is an incredibly emotive experience and a true testament to strength in solidarity. “

Curator Dr Nicola Baird

A celebration event of the exhibition will be held Saturday 19 September, 2-4pm. Admission is free. The event will also involve a protective sand pouring performance by Bušková inspired by nineteenth century Polish preparations for religious feasts and Pre-Christian Slavic springtime customs.

Book via Eventbrite Mothers without Hands - Celebration event

For more information about Mothers Without Hands and other exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall, visit The New Art Gallery Walsall.

ENDS

Note to editors

The work arising from the Mothers without Hands project and included in the exhibition was made possible by funding from Arts Council England, Aaina Hub, Folkestone Women’s Forum/Take Up Space Festival and Walsall Council as well as Prague Airport and Suchdol Council. The project was supported by a number of organisations and individuals including Arts All Over The Place, Erdington in Birmingham, MOLO Czechs and Slovaks and Folkestone & Hythe District Council in Folkestone, Aaina Hub and Caldmore Community Garden in Walsall, nadace Veronica and Vesna (The Women’s Educational Institute) in Brno and Radost Suchdol (Joy for Suchdol) in Prague among many others.

Mothers without Hands was initiated in Walsall in November 2023 with a series of creative workshops at Nash Dom CIC to mark 16 Days of Action Against Gender-based Violence supported by Creative Black Country and Walsall Council. Inclusive public processions featuring headdresses produced during workshops involving local women took place on Walsall high street in 2024 and 2025.

About the artist

Tereza Bušková was born in Prague in 1978. She lives and works in Birmingham. Her practice is inspired by Slavic, British and European folklore as well as global cultural traditions. Over the last decade, Bušková has championed folk-inspired art and craft for social change by actively involving diverse communities in Birmingham, Walsall and adjacent Black Country towns in craft, making and baking workshops as part of participatory projects which have focused on themes of identity, belonging and home. Bušková’s work demonstrates a deep interest in the handmade and found, in the reinterpretation of cultural and material histories and in investigations into the resilience and revival of ritual. Recent exhibitions include Friends in Love and War (IKON, Birmingham and Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon, 2024-25, supported by the British Council) and Hidden Mothers (Midlands Art Centre, 2024). Buškova is included in Hettie Judah’s latest book, How to Enter the Art World… (April 2026, Hoxton Mini Press).

About the curator

Dr Nicola Baird is an art historian and curator specializing in twentieth century and contemporary British and European art and cultural history. Previous exhibitions have included Fred Uhlman (Burgh House; Hatton Gallery, 2018), Czech Routes to Britain (Ben Uri Gallery, 2019), Becoming Gustav Metzger (Ben Uri Gallery, 2021), Knots: Jonny Briggs x Burgh House- Contemporary Interventions into an Historic House (Burgh House, 2021-2022) and 'The line is an unreal thing': Dorothy Mead and Edna Mann (London South Bank University, 2024). She is the author of articles published in The Journal of Avant-Garde Studies, The International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, and The Art of Activism (2025). Publications about the artists David Bomberg and Dorothy Mead are forthcoming.