Beyond the Frame: Memory, Critical Fabulation and Creative Writing, with Dr Naomi Pearce

Feminist Library: Dr Naomi Pearce

Writing The Photograph

This workshop draws on Saidiya Hartman’s methods of ‘critical fabulation’ and Annette Kuhn’s use of ‘memory work’, inviting participants to animate photographs through creative writing. How can we unlock latent meanings - associated and imagined - hidden beneath the image surface by using these methods? What narratives are unfolding just beyond the frame? Together, we will misread, over-identify, and implicate ourselves, feeling for the edges of the photograph as document, evidence and proof.

No prior writing experience is required; the workshop is open to everyone.

Artist Bio:

Naomi Pearce is a writer living in Ceredigion. Her debut novel, Innominate (MOIST Books, 2023), was described by Iain Sinclair as “a classic of local archaeology.” Drawing on a background in textiles, her work weaves together feminist and queer histories, place, ecology, and art. She has been published in British Art Studies, LA Review of Books, TON Magazine, and The White Review and performed live at Experimentica (Chapter, 2024) and Sownd [ar safle] Cors Caron (Cymru yn Fenis / Wales in Venice, 61st Venice Biennale, 2026), amongst others. Naomi recently participated in the Hay Festival Writers at Work programme and teaches fine art and art history at Aberystwyth University.

We would like to thank the Paul Mellon Centre, whose generous funding has enabled us to continue these sessions.

Description supplied by the event organiser.