Curator Talk: What Remains

Explore What Remains with curator Laura Moseley in a relaxed, small-group tour. Together we'll look closely at the artworks, discuss the exhibition's themes and research, and consider how contemporary artists continue to work with feminist histories, archives and memory.

About the exhibition

marks the 40th anniversary of the first artwork acquired by Murray Edwards College: (1986) by artist and writer Mary Kelly (b. 1941).

Taking this work as its starting point, What Remains brings together works by contemporary artists working across archives, personal and collective histories, and material traces of the past. They ask what endures, what is forgotten, and how activist histories continue to be reimagined.

Rather than treating history as something to preserve unchanged, the works in this exhibition activate it as a living resource. They reveal history as contested, incomplete, and continually rewritten—inviting us to consider how identities are formed, whose stories are remembered, and how art can open new ways of imagining the future.

Created during Kelly’s residency at Murray Edwards College (then New Hall) and Kettle’s Yard in 1985–86, Extase became the foundation of The Women’s Art Collection and remains a key work in its history.

Extase forms part of Kelly's larger installation Interim (1984–89), a multipart work that, rather than presenting history or subjectivity as complete or settled, proposes the interim as a space of transition, uncertainty, and possibility—where meanings remain open and identities continue to be shaped.

Three accompanying display cases expand the exhibition through archival material drawn from The Women’s Art Collection, Kettle’s Yard, Glasgow Women’s Library, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Women’s Resource Centre and private collections. Together, they trace the exhibition’s historical and intellectual contexts, from documents relating to Mary Kelly’s 1985–86 residency, to the books, publications and activist ephemera that have informed the exhibiting artists’ research. Featuring feminist health manuals, magazines and zines, the displays highlight the vital role of independent publishing, archives and collective knowledge in shaping feminist artistic practice across generations.

Artists: Lorna Hamilton-Brown, Rachael House, Sarah-Joy Ford, Ellen Lesperance, Helen de Main, Sadé Mica, Kelly O’Brien, Olivia Plender and Ebun Sodipo

About the curator

Laura Moseley is the Curator of the Women’s Art Collection and the Founder of Common Threads Press, an independent publisher dedicated to recovering and sharing histories of creative practice. Trained as an art historian, she holds both a BA and MA in History of Art, specialising in historic and contemporary craft practices, with particular interest in the intersections of material culture, gender, activism and social histories.

At the Women’s Art Collection, Laura has worked on exhibitions including What Lies Beneath: Women, Politics and Textiles, The Sleepers, Relative Ties and What Remains. Her research and curatorial practice explore how craft, textiles and contemporary art can illuminate queer and feminist histories, disability, care, community and activism.

Alongside her role at the Collection, Laura has collaborated with organisations including MoMu Antwerp, the Royal School of Needlework, the Pitt Rivers Museum and Cardiff University on projects examining the cultural histories of art and craft and their relationship to social and political movements. In 2025–26, she was the inaugural Publisher in Residence at the Gibson Museum, Vancouver.

Please meet at the Porters' Lodge at the start time, and Laura will take you down to the exhibition.

Accessibility: Upon arrival at the College, please head for the Porters’ Lodge at the main entrance, which has vehicle access and a generous dropping-off space, located on Buckingham Road which is off Huntingdon Road. Wheelchair access is available from the dropping-off point to the Porters’ Lodge. The exhibition is on the lower ground floor which is accessible via a lift or stairs.

Car Parking: If you are coming by car, parking for up to 70 guests is available in our car park located on Storey’s Way, including Blue Badge spaces. The route from the car park to the Porters’ Lodge is paved in generally smooth stone, concrete or tiling, with maps and signage along the way to help you find the Porter's Lodge. At one point there is a slight incline to the main walkway building.

Alternatively, it is possible to be dropped off in front of the Porters’ Lodge, as described above.

Read our Access page to find out more about our spaces. Please get in touch if you have any further queries or requirements: [email protected] or call the Porter's Lodge at +44 (0)1223 762100.

Image: Olivia Plender, Our Bodies Are Not the Problem, The Problem Is Power, 2022, acrylic on canvas with wooden dowels and string, 133 x 149.5 cm. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.

Murray Edwards College Porters' Lodge