Double, double (2025)-Artcore Gallery, Osnabruck Square, Derby
In Double, Double, I reimagine the witch as a symbol of feminine power, transformation, and resistance. Working collaboratively with an all-female coven, I invite my subjects to embody symbolic elements, earth, air, fire, water- establishing roles that resonate with their personal energy and presence. These women are not posed as fictional characters, but as archetypal extensions of themselves. Their identities, like the witch herself, are layered, ambiguous, and fluid.
Nature, texture, and the body become vessels for symbolic meaning in my work, blurring the line between subject and setting. The series invites viewers into a quiet, ritualistic space, where identity is fragmented, myth is reclaimed, and the witch emerges not as spectacle, but as presence.
Influenced by feminist theory, Double, Double situates the witch as a figure of resistance against patriarchal control and capitalist systems. Historically condemned for their independence, women labelled as witches were often those who lived outside societal norms. My work reclaims this identity, offering the witch not as a threat, but as a celebration of female agency, embodied knowledge, and spiritual autonomy.
My practice centres around in-camera double exposures and black-and-white abstraction. Forests, textures, light, and movement become central tools in my process, allowing the images to suggest the witch without directly showing her.
Mirror mirror in my phone (2024) Markeaton st, The University of Derby
By Rachael Ashley
In this ongoing project, I explore the creation of online identities as a tool for constructing entirely new personas on platforms like Instagram. By removing personal details and inhabiting disembodied, curated characters, I examine how identity is performed, consumed, and shaped by both culture and algorithms.
Influenced by Cindy Sherman’s approach to identity, I create faceless, archetypal personas that reflect contemporary beauty standards, societal expectations, and the pressures of social media. Using AI and editing tools, these characters embody the unsettling tension between curated perfection and authentic selfhood, highlighting how digital platforms mediate, surveil, and control our online presence.
The project also investigates the paradox of autonomy and restriction: as I construct identities, Instagram’s algorithms and moderation policies respond, revealing how art, performance, and identity are simultaneously empowered and constrained by technology.
Ultimately, this work critiques the commodification of online identity, questioning how much of ourselves we perform for validation, and what it means to exist as both creator and subject in a digital landscape