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The Art House, Wakefield  /  06.12.25 – 07.03.26

Divine Archives

Emily Ryalls' first solo exhibition

Divine Archives is Wakefield-based artist Emily Ryalls' first solo exhibition, exploring women's bodies as living archives of knowledge and memory. In summer 2025 Emily invited 46 women to a series of gatherings, where they cast parts of their bodies in clay, made sun prints of their forms on light-sensitive fabric and performed for the camera.

The exhibition at The Art House brought this work together through hand-printed photographs, 8mm films projected onto hanging translucent screens, cyanotypes and pit-fired ceramics.

My roleCollaborating artist

Behind the camera & in the darkroom

I photographed Emily's gatherings on 35mm, helped print the exhibition's photographs in the darkroom, and shot two 8mm films that were shown in the final exhibition.

  • 35mm photography
  • Darkroom printing
  • 8mm film
Gallery09 images
Hanging translucent screens dividing the Main Gallery at The Art House
01 · Main Gallery
Workshop participant photographed on 35mm
02 · 35mm
A participant holding a camera during a workshop
03 · 35mm
Hands held against a body, photographed in black and white
04 · 35mm
A woman sitting on the grass during an outdoor gathering
05 · 35mm
Visitors looking at a wall of hand-printed photographs
06
Wall of photographs and pit-fired ceramics
07
Two visitors viewing the photographs and ceramics
08
A visitor watching an 8mm film projected in the gallery
09 · 8mm