University gallery exhibition sheds new light on lives of women in the past

The exhibition – entitled The Matriarchive, and running 2-17 September – stems from a research project carried out by Rachel during her time as Research Exchange Fellow at the V&A Museum Research Institute (VARI) in partnership with the University of Brighton. The study delved into overlooked female narratives in domestic photographic materials from the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection held in the V&A archives.

The images in the show are a mixture of images from a Victorian photo album in the V&A from around the 1870s, other material from around 1919, plus Rachel's own family albums. There is also some new imagery made during the course of the project, including two moving image film pieces created in 2020.

Rachel used pauses in her archive research due to the COVID pandemic to explore her own family collections in relation to other research participants she engaged with via online workshops. The results of these workshops have been curated into a book (similar to a family photograph album) that will be displayed in the gallery space for visitors to look through.

The exhibition will also include talks and events – free, but advance booking required.

On Thursday 9 September, Rachel will be joined by Annebella Pollen (Reader in the History of Art and Design, University of Brighton) for an online talk entitled The doing and the unfixing of family photographs from 4.30–5.30pm, and chaired by Polly Wright from Brighton CCA.

On Saturday 11 September from 2–3.30pm, Rachel will lead an informal in-person workshop at the gallery entitled Making the private public where people can discuss questions and challenges around using their own or family pictures as part of creative practice such as art or writing.

As an introduction to the exhibition, there will also be 30-minute guided tours (including free goody bag!) in slots between 4–7pm on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 September.

Speaking about the exhibition, Rachel Maloney said: “Victorian expectations of gender roles are reflected by each album’s content, with women primarily represented in the home and connected to domestic roles. However, some of the scenes created in these albums really surprised me with their creativity and lightheartedness, complicating the stereotype of a formal and oppressive Victorian femininity.

“A new photographic language emerged, one that spoke not only about women, but to women. The representation of women in commercially available publications may have been restricted by social norms of the time, but within personal albums women could create new meanings in their usage of photographic images and mixed media collage.”

Rachel gained an MA in Photography at the University of Brighton in 2015, and combines her work as an artist and researcher with a role as Technical Demonstrator in Photography at the university.

Brighton CCA gallery is part of the University of Brighton, and a centre for contemporary arts that hosts world class exhibitions, projects, commissions and research by international emerging and established artists.