Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality

10 February 2023 – 30 July 2023

Knossos was famous in Greek myth as the location of the Labyrinth and its resident Minotaur. The exhibition explores the archaeological hunt for Knossos from 1878 through to the modern day.

Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design

21 September 2023 – 18 February 2024

Dispelling our monochrome idea of Victorian Britain discover a revolution of colour. From dazzling dyes used in chic corsets and the flamboyant use of nature’s beauty in exquisite jewellery, to the shimmering splendour of ceramics and bold experiments by avant-garde painters, rediscover Victorian society as a vibrant colour-filled era in this major new exhibition.

Three New Voices

Three students currently studying on the BA (HONS) Photography Degree at Oxford Brookes University have come together to present three separate bodies of work documenting women dealing with parenting, representation, and adolescence. The work created responds to module briefs set within the course but explores personal connections with chosen narratives and encourages an engagement with universal issues of change and resilience.

The work of all three photographers adopts an immersive approach to photographic documentation and a collaborative storytelling response to the creation of visual narratives. A connective thread can be clearly seen within the photographers work that identifies the challenges that women face when dealing with adulthood and societal expectations of being a woman.

Sophie Jeffrey’s images, created in the North-East of England, within a student house, are raw and honest in their depiction of a friend dealing with issues of mental wellbeing.

Laura Skog’s work documents the transition from childhood of her partner’s sister in Switzerland. Her images are confident yet fragile, filled with a sense of anticipation and promise.

Lydia Wakefield’s documentation of her brother’s wife and their new-born child living near Stroud, Gloucestershire, provide an insight into the reality of living as a young family under Covid.

Water Lily

Water Lily is a photographic series by Oxford-based photographer Keiko Ikeuchi featuring Kazuo Ohno (1906-2010) who was a celebrated pioneer of Butoh, an avant-garde form of dance theatre which is often described as the ‘Dance of Darkness’.

This series was photographed in the 1990s when Kazuo Ohno was in his late 80s. He is dressed as a maiden in a set that appears to represent a kind of purgatory. Keiko captures

the dancer’s physical expressions and gentle movements as they contrast in unexpected ways with his striking appearance. Keiko Ikeuchi was born and raised in Japan and moved to England to study Visual Communication. Her early fascination with the body as a subject for photography developed to include the capture of human movement and portraiture. She is a recipient of the Patrick Litchfield Award from the BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photography) and is a past winner of the Professional Photographer Magazine Portrait Competition.

The exhibition consists of 15 black and white silver gelatine prints on fibre-based papers and is part of the Photo Oxford Festival Women and Photography: Ways of Seeing and Being Seen’.

His Dark Materials among the displays

Trace the steps of Lyra Belacqua through the galleries of the Pitt Rivers Museum in this opportunity to see items featured in the BBC HBO production of the television series His Dark Materials within the famous displays.

UNMASKED – Spirit in the City

28 January 2023 to 7 January 2024

Fusing art and anthropology to unmask the violence and vulnerability of life in Nigeria’s oil capital Port Harcourt.

Bindi Vora: Mountain of Salt

Mountain of Salt (2020-21) is an expansive body of work comprised of found images, appropriated text and digital shape collages, initially conceptualised as a human response to the unfolding of covid-19. In March 2020 as the pandemic gripped the world, I like many others became acutely aware of the landscape in which we were living in, where everything felt amplified; clinging to the news for updates, statistics and curves – in my own way analysing the myriad forms of information being shared – for me it highlighted the way words and speech have a physical presence, a bearing upon us and carry weight.

This text-based series of collages focuses on the language used over the last year and developed from the collecting of words and sentences derived from politicians, journalists and individuals all sharing their commentary, updates or thoughts. As each wave/lockdown unfolded across the UK the evolution of works were further punctuated by many issues that are of global concern and moments that have affected us well beyond the pandemic – equality, hyper-vigilance, ‘Brexit’, pledges of reform and prolonged moments of stillness are all encompassed and bookended with some of the more light-hearted moments experienced in these times.

The distinct rhetoric of collective responsibility, togetherness and unity constantly being pushed onto us by those in positions of power is further amplified by the shapes that appear in the works and reflects a semantic response to this – they aren’t only there to direct your gaze across the image or to pause in certain spaces but contemplate the etymological meaning of what the shapes represent. Through this work I am interested in how we might unite and reflect on this time currently being experienced in our individual and collective ways, as we all live in the hope of clambering out and making it to the other side unscathed. This curious collection of phrases speaks to the dissemination of language and its effect upon us.

A series of 370 works comprised of found photograph, appropriated text and digital shapes collages

Vivian Maier, Susan Meiselas and Judith Joy Ross: a cross-reading of three women photographers in the collection of photographs of Florence and Damien Bachelot

15 and 29 October 2021 – Evening Projections

Picture Stories + Q&A

4th November – 6pm

Britain’s best-selling magazine during the Second World War, Picture Post revolutionised the picture magazine, showing Britain to the British in a fundamentally new way. Using the freedom of new camera technology, Picture Post’s photographers portrayed the lives of ordinary people, at home, on the street, unposed. Through its powerful, socially committed picture stories, Picture Post helped to transform post-war Britain and change the face of British photography. The remarkable story of this iconic magazine is told by its photographers, writers and editors in this fascinating documentary. Followed by a Q&A organised by Photo Oxford 2021.