Lisa Tomasetti’s exhibition of large-scale photographic works examines the portrayal of women and children in the history of art and questions traditional notions of class and ethnicity. The subjects for these works, often from indigenous cultures, have been placed in strange and vast interiors creating a poignant sense of alienation and displacement between them and their surroundings. This estrangement is further enhanced by Tomasetti’s dramatic manipulation of light and space –both heavily influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio and Vermeer. Oscar nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (Atonement,The Hours, Nowhere Boy) collaborated with Lisa Tomasetti to produce Burnt Memory. The works have a pronounced cinematic quality and, akin to film, have the ability to stir up overwhelming feelings of nostalgia and longing within us. Lisa says of her latest exhibition: ‘Burnt Memory is concerned with childhood memory and innocence and how we can sometimes recreate rather than recall our childhood. I am also examining the complicity of colonial era photography and art in the creation of stereotypes of black womanhood. Some of my images also recall Orientalist paintings in which young women were exoticized as objects of colonial fantasy. Other photographs strip back the complex layers of cultural reference to show strong, defiant women.’