Things Like That
Belfast Exposed is pleased to present Things Like That, a newly commissioned film and installation by Trish Morrissey, developed in response to the Belfast Exposed Archive. This commission forms part of the organisation’s long-term strategy to reanimate the archive as an active, living resource—one that invites contemporary artists to engage critically with its material, histories and systems of knowledge.
The Belfast Exposed Archive spans over four decades and holds images of significant historical, political and social importance, alongside an extensive record of everyday life and community-led photographic practice. Rooted in the organisation’s origins as a grassroots initiative founded in 1979, the archive reflects Belfast Exposed’s enduring commitment to representing the city and its people beyond dominant or reductive narratives.
Rather than approaching the archive as a site of fixed meaning or historical certainty, Morrissey’s work foregrounds its instability, subjectivity and performative potential. Things Like That explores the archive not only as a repository of images, but as a space shaped by memory, power, intuition and care. By focusing on the physical architecture of the archive and the embodied labour of archiving, the work raises questions about authorship, access, preservation and interpretation.
This commission aligns with Belfast Exposed’s wider programme of archive-led exhibitions and research, which seek to support artistic experimentation, foster critical reflection, and open the archive to new audiences. Through commissions such as this, Belfast Exposed continues to position the archive as a vital site for contemporary artistic inquiry, cultural dialogue and public engagement.
Trish Morrissey Interview
About Trish Morrissey
Trish Morrissey is an award winning visual artist working with photography and moving image. Dublin born, she now lives in the UK. In her work, she uses her own biography and weaves it in and out of the stories of others, using her body as a means of re-enactment and personal reflection, creating a narrative about female experience.
Morrissey has exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally for over twenty-five years, including Visual, Carlow, Turner Contemporary, UK; Victoria and Albert Museum,UK; Palazzo Strozzi, Italy, and Centre for Contemporary Photography, Australia. A mid career survey exhibition Autofictions: Twenty Years of Photography and Film opened in Serlachius Museum, Finland in 2022 and went on to tour the UK and Ireland 2023/2024, including Photo Museum Ireland in Dublin.
Her work is held in public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Michael Wilson Centre for Photography, UK; Science Museum Group UK; Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Finland; Bohuslän Museum, Sweden; Martin Parr Foundation, UK The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Arts Council of Ireland.
Morrissey’s work features in several survey publications including Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945 by Gerry Badger (2022); Making It Up: Photographic Fictions by Marta Weiss (2018); Photography and Ireland by Justin Carville (2012); Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography by Susan Bright (2010); and Vitamin Ph, Survey of International Contemporary Photography by Rodrigo Alonso (2006) and The Photograph as Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton, Thames and Hudson (2006).
*Previous version of biography contained inaccurate information. Corrected 23/01/26.*
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