Maisie Broadhead

Maisie Broadhead re-interprets art historical images and cultural motifs, employing their aesthetic to investigate illusion, the uncanny and the ritual of storytelling. She uses complex set design and costume to re-present historical elements alongside contemporary props and humorous embellishment. By doing so, her images link the past and present and identify enduring aesthetic and social narratives - such as family, the role of women, and the cultural perception of value.

By weaving these visual and thematic elements together, Maisie's images unfold like enigmatic ocular novels; scenes are rich with pictorial clues that point to an underlying story, yet these intimations are not enough to reveal the plot in full. Central characters, played by Maisie's friends and family, are either lost in a moment of quiet distraction or turned towards us, as if our presence has just disturbed them from their thoughts. Ambiguity is a recurrent theme in Maisie's work; 'there is no easy narrative… in the glimpses we have into each other's lives, knowledge is partial, obscured by our own preconceptions.' (Annie Warburton, Through the Looking Glass: Caroline Broadhead and Maisie Broadhead, The National Glass Centre, UK, 2019).