Trish Morrissey – Autofictions

Among the leading women in photography practising today, Trish Morrissey frequently draws inspiration from both her familial history and archival materials, reinterpreting stories from the past to create groundbreaking new narratives.

This year, Serlachius Museum Gustaf plays host to a mid-career survey of Trish’s work, her first solo exhibition in Finland. Curated by Kate Best, the show brings together photographs and films from over twenty years of Trish’s practice.

While the majority of Trish’s photographs feature herself as the protagonist, she doesn’t necessarily perceive them as self portraits. Intertwining reality and fiction, she inhabits the role of family members, historical figures, and even strangers – encountering groups in public and inserting herself into the frame.

Across multiple series, Trish’s photography maintains a performative quality; in the ambiguous distance between reality and fantasy, self and other, Trish’s ‘autofictions’ flourish.

Themes of motherhood and female inheritance run through the exhibition, with Trish collaborating with her mother, sister, and daughter in several works. Broadly chronological, the exhibition is loosely structured around a narrative which explores women’s experiences of youth, middle age, and beyond.

The exhibition will also premiere a new body of work, including Trish’s most ambitious film installation to date. Inspired by the lives of Sissi and Ruth Serlachius, the first and second wives of Gösta Serlachius – managing director of Gösta Serlachius Paper Company and founder of the Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation – Eupnea brings together the lives of both women, interwoven with Trish’s biography.

The immersive film work considers themes of loss, longing, and desire amid the trauma of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the exhibition will be opened virtually. The video opening the exhibition will contain an interview with Trish and an introduction to the show, among other highlights.

Autofictions will be on view from 2nd May 2022 to 1st August 2023. For more information, please see the Serlachius Museums website.