Panel Discussion: Of Bitterness, Doubt and Neglect: Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska, Kettle’s Yard and History’s Shadows

Dr Patricia Gillies holds a Ph.D in French Language and Literature, with a comparative literature thesis on imagery from Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois. Having taught in the USA & Australia, Gillies is currently Director of Literature and Senior Lecturer in Literature in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies [LIFTS] at the University of Essex-Wivenhoe Park. Gillies’ publications reflect her training in languages, transcribing and editing manuscripts, women’s creativity and expression, the language of art and comparative literature. She has a long-term research, editing and publication project based in the Sophie Gaudier Brzeska archive at the Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex-Wivenhoe Park. Recently Gillies participated in celebrations of the Centennial of Sophie Gaudier Brzeska: an afternoon of lectures organised at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CIRLS), Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex-Wivenhoe Park and a weekend of events organised at the Wotton-Under-Edge Historical Centre, Gloucestershire.

Ania Ready is a UK-based photographic artist and author. Her multidisciplinary practice combines photography, archives, text, collage, and cameraless techniques to explore suppressed histories and the politics of representation – particularly concerning women, mental illness, and systems of control.

With a background in literature, Ready merges visual and textual narratives to investigate how agency, memory, and identity are shaped. Her work focuses on the representation, aestheticisation, and control of women’s bodies in visual culture, often addressing themes of femininity, hysteria, and absence.
Her literary photobook I Also Fight Windmills (VIKA Books, 2023) reimagines the life and writings of overlooked Polish modernist Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska. Combining archival texts with staged black-and-white images, it explores creative exile, psychological struggle, and women’s social marginalisation. The book is held in numerous collections, including the Bodleian Library, Martin Parr Foundation, Aperture Library (NYC), and NOMUS Museum (Poland).

Ready has exhibited internationally, with shows at Gdynia Film Centre, Hundred Heroines Museum, Modern Art Oxford, Pitt Rivers Museum, and various photography festivals. She lives and works in the UK.

Dr Inga Fraser became was appointed Senior Curator, House and Collection at Kettle’s Yard in 2023, leading on the care and conservation of the house, collection and archive, and related displays, exhibitions and events.

Prior to joining, Inga held curatorial roles at Tate, English Heritage and the National Portrait Gallery and has taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She is a specialist in modern British art, focusing on artists’ intermedial practices and experimental exhibition spaces. Her PhD was an AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral partnership with Tate and the Royal College of Art and she also has a History of Art MA from Birkbeck College and History BA from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Juliette Bretan is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, working on depictions of Poland and East-central Europe in early twentieth century English literature, and cross-cultural connections between Poland and Britain in that period. Her work has been published by Critical Quarterly, The Cambridge Quarterly, and The Conradian, and is also forthcoming in The T.S. Eliot Annual and Comparative Literature. She has also appeared on BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service, as well as writing for the TLS and other publications.

See the display of drawings by Sophie’s partner Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in the Kettle’s Yard house from 29 May 2025. Please note that the attic spaces in the house, where the majority of the collection of drawings by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska are displayed at Kettle’s Yard, are accessible by staircase only. Additional drawings are on display in the Lower Extension which is wheelchair accessible.

Find out more here

• The galleries, where exhibitions are shown, and all areas of the Clore Learning Studio (level -1), the Research Space (level 1) and the Ede Room (level 2) are fully accessible.
• We have wheelchair accessible toilets on the lower ground (level -1), ground and first floor (level 1).
• There is a lift giving access to all floors located past the galleries, just beside the Clore Learning Studio on the ground floor.
• Kettle’s Yard welcomes assistance and service dogs in all areas.
• We have large-print versions of the wall text available.
• We can lend visitors small folding seats for taking around exhibitions or using at non-seated events. Please ask a Visitor Assistant for help finding a seat.

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