Book Launch: Subversive Mothers, Disturbing Domesticity

Home is a word brimming with emotion, expectation and contradiction. It is where love and comfort are sought, yet it can also feel oppressive or unreachable. This talk is a thought-provoking exploration of the many dimensions of what it means to inhabit this space – physically, emotionally, and socially. Is home a sanctuary, a workplace, or a battleground for equality?

Subversive Mothers, Disturbing Domesticity invites readers to rethink this deeply familiar yet elusive space, recognising the hidden histories, emotions, and struggles that exist within its walls. It sets out the use of photography to examine and challenge invisibility. Thoughtful and compelling, it sheds light on why home is never just a place, but a profound experience that both shapes us and is shaped by us.

Subversive Mothers, Disturbing Domesticity is published by Bloomsbury as part of its series Experiments/On the Political: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/subversive-mothers-disturbing-domesticity-9781666951929/

Images © (left to right): Photo of Clare Gallagher by John Spinks; Book cover of ‘Subversive Mothers, Disturbing Domesticity’; Image from inside book

Capacity is limited – Book your free ticket below!

Photographer Description:

Clare Gallagher is a Belfast-born artist based in the North of Ireland whose practice explores the intimate terrain of home and women’s lived experience. Working primarily through photography, her work attends to the overlooked rhythms of domestic life — the labour of mothering, gestures of care, and the complex emotional landscape of home. Clare is Senior Lecturer in Photography and Director of the BA (Hons) Photography with Video at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.