How might we read memory in relation to the family, and how might we enact these memories in visual form? This group exhibition addresses the representation of family memory through the lens-based works of six artists. Family Ties: Reframing Memory explores the bittersweet aspects of nostalgia, yet also questions the conflicts and contradictions inherent in acts of remembering.

Suze Adams navigates the borders of fact and fiction in an exploratory re-tracing of her maternal ancestors. Nicky Bird draws on family albums belonging to others to illuminate personal, political memories connected to place. Jacqueline Butler’s poetic approach alludes to sensory memories prompted by public photographic collections and her personal archive. Rosy Martin re-enacts a lost past as she embodies both of her parents in their family home and evokes a sense of haunting using projections. Lizzie Thynne’s experimental documentary reflects on her mother’s life as well as the inter-subjectivity of all biography and choreographs memories of family and relationships from the Women’s Liberation Movement. Sally Waterman recalls traumatic memories of family conflict through literary adaptation and staged re-photography.

As artist members of the Family Ties Network, their work offers a poignant and provocative response to themes arising from the conference, Picturing the Family: Media, Narrative, Memory (Birkbeck, University of London, 10 and 11 July 2014).

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