Jenny Brownrigg

This on-line article 'Challenge to Fascism: Glasgow's May Day' (1938) is about Helen Biggar's (1909- 1953) final film. The article gives a full synopsis of the film and looks at Biggar's upbringing to explain why she was one of the few early women filmmakers in Scotland to be making films with an overtly political message. The article was published on May Day 2016.

This script is from my presentation ‘Early women photographers documenting Highland and Islands of Scotland: MEM Donaldson’. It was delivered at The Highland Folk Museum’s annual seminar ‘Unchartered places: pioneering women of early 20th century Scotland’, on 25.10.17. The seminar was established in honour of the Highland Folk Museum’s inspirational and pioneering founder Dr Isabel F Grant (1887-1983). All the speakers, including Dr Margaret Bennett, Shona Main (PhD candidate, University of Stirling and The Glasgow School of Art) and Dr Pricilla Scott (University of Edinburgh) presented on pioneering women in Scotland, from the early 1900s, including the suffragette movement, the influence of forward looking women in the development of the Mod and early women photographers and filmmakers. The afternoon, of which my presentation was part of, was chaired by Dr Margaret Mackay (Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh). My presentation focused on MEM Donaldson, beginning by tracing th...

The paper examined the work of Franki Raffles (1955-1994), a feminist social documentary photographer, drawing on research from The Raffles Archive Project which gathered together Raffles’ complete photographic practice, together with her notebooks, diaries and press cuttings (Dr Alistair Scott, Edinburgh Napier University); and the recent exhibition ‘Franki Raffles: Observing Women at Work’ at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, the first solo exhibition of her work in the twenty-three years since her untimely death (Jenny Brownrigg, curator). Scott's section of this paper examined Raffles' approach to documenting the lives of women working under two opposing political systems, namely communist and capitalist, to compare the differences of depiction, and reflect on how the images provide evidence of the strength and resilience of women in both types of society. Brownrigg outlined her curatorial methodology employed for interpreting Raffles work for display and situate Raff...

What methods can be used to define early 20th-century women photographers’ unique ‘ways of seeing’ rural Highlands and Islands Scotland through the camera lens? This article seeks to establish comparisons through the ‘overlap’, a technique which has stemmed from an ongoing period of archival research, traversing multiple archives to map a wider context. I began to see examples where different photographers have separately photographed the same subject, landmark, theme, landscape, event or even people. This allowed for a method of close comparison, therefore analysis of differences, or similarities, in framing, composition or intention. Whilst my ongoing research is centred on 13 early 20th-century women social documentary photographers and filmmakers in Scotland, in particular this article makes reference to Mary Ethel Muir Donaldson (1876–1958), Violet Banks (1886–1985) and Margaret Fay Shaw (1903–2004). I identify instances where their work ‘overlaps’ with each other’s, with their...

This Photomonitor conversation between Jenny Brownrigg and Dr. Alistair Scott (Edinburgh Napier University) focuses on feminist social documentary photographer Franki Raffles (1955-1994). Dr Alistair Scott set up The Raffles Archive Project which has gathered together Raffles’ complete photographic practice, together with her notebooks, diaries and press cuttings. Jenny Brownrigg (Exhibitions Director, Glasgow School of Art) curated the exhibition ‘Franki Raffles: Observing Women at Work’ at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, the first solo exhibition of Raffles’ work in the twenty-three years since her untimely death. The conversation looks at the genesis of the Franki Raffles Archive Project, the importance of the archive as a platform for a photographer's body of work and places Raffles' photography into a wider UK context of photography from the 1970s' and 1980s'. Photomonitor is an online magazine focusing on photography and lens-based media in the UK and Irel...

'Live Your Questions Now' is a case study for Cubitt Education's publication 'Aging in Public: creative practice in ageing and the public realm from across the UK', edited by Daniel Baker and published by Cubitt Gallery, Studios and Education, London in 2016. The publication was linked to Cubitt's programme 'Public Wisdom' (2011-2015). My case study is about 'Live your questions now', a group exhibition I curated in 2011 for Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art. 'Live your questions now' was a survey show of national and international artists who were sixty years old or over. Artists included: Sam Ainsley, Helena Almeida, Alasdair Gray, Joan Jonas, Ana Jotta, Bela Kolarova, Lygia Pape and Michael Kidner. The show was a critique of the model of a survey show, which in recent years predominantly has focused on young, emerging artists. The exhibition aimed to look at contemporary practice through the longevity of a career and assess what drove artists' to keep on making their work into their 60s', 70s' and 80s'.

A review for Map Magazine of Florrie James' film 'O.K. Rick' (2014) which was screened as part of Glasgow Film Festival in Feb 2015. Florrie James developed the film when on a Margaret Tait Residency at Pier Arts Centre, Orkney in 2014. The review describes the film and assesses James' approach to film-making, in order to illustrate that this is a film about landscape that deals with the subject in neither a nostalgic or romantic manner.

This on-going Public Seminar Series started in October 2015 with the topic 'Women, Picture, Place', in which guest speakers from Scotland and Finland presented research findings on women photographers and film makers addressing 'the North' in the 1930s. The 2017 event addressed the theme of 'Place Image, Heritage and Archaelogy'. This October 2018 seminar was on the theme: 'An Auto-ethnographic Turn'. In 2019, 'Through a Northern Lens' series will contribute to 'Practicing Landscape' conference programme. Auto-ethnography is an approach to observation and field work that has been adopted in various ways in art and design research and practice. Auto-ethnography developed in order to disrupt the unequal power relations that had obtained between apparently objective external specialist observers of people, places and activities and the observed 'others' of observation. In practice, expressions range from a species of situated auto...

This artefact was exhibited in the group research exhibition 'Practicing Landscape: Land, Histories and Transformation', which ran at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, 25 Jan - 22 Mar 2020. This artefact sits within ongoing research where the main aim is to show the breadth of documentary-focused work made by early twentieth century women photographers and filmmakers in Scotland. The artefact is a prototype, the first iteration of how to exhibit the work of one of the thirteen women I am researching. The prototype enables findings that will build towards a survey exhibition at City Art Centre, Edinburgh, in early 2022, as well as opening up new lines of enquiry for written work. From the thirteen women I am researching, the artefact focuses on Edinburgh photographer Violet Banks (1886-1985). Veronica Fraser, an archivist at Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) wrote about Banks’ life in ‘Vernacular Buildings’ (P67-78, ‘Vernacular Building 32’, S...

Research Question: - How can a curatorial practice be site-specific and respond to a visual arts practice (in this case Alasdair Gray), by expanding on his themes through a series of contemporary commissions and works of other artists' from collections? Methodology: This exhibition provides alternative readings of Alasdair Gray’s visual practice, through the prism of others’. Spheres of Influence II included both historical and contemporary pieces from the realms of visual art, design and illustration. Gray’s work formed the central point around which the other works orbit. The broad themes drawn from Gray’s oeuvre included graphic style; symbolism; text and image; lettering and the alphabet; portraiture and identity; labour; religion; war; love and sexuality. Works selected from other practitioners' included those that influenced Gray - Eric Gill, Aubrey Beardsley - through to artists' work that expanded the reading of Gray's themes - Denis Tegetmeier, Peter Howson,...

By looking at examples of Jenny Gilbertson, M.E.M. Donaldson, Margaret Fay Shaw and Nan Shepherd’s film and photography work from 1920s'-1940s', this 20 minute paper assessed if these three women offered a different reading on the landscape of the North from their better known male contemporaries. Through archival sources, alongside their film, photography and literature outputs, I presented their aims, methods and examples of their work. In order to contextualize their approach to the Scottish Highland & Islands landscape, I referred to examples of work by Werner Kissling and John Grierson. Jenny Gilbertson (1902-1990) moved to Shetland from Glasgow to live on a croft, producing her first film 'A Crofter's Life in Shetland' (60 mins) in 1931. On showing this to John Grierson (1898-1972), he went on to buy a further five of her films on aspects of Shetland life for the G.P.O. Film Unit. Through the time spent living on Shetland in a crofting community, Gilbertson...

Review for Afterall online of Charlotte Prodger's performance 'microsphaeric howard hughes heaven movie' at Tramway, Glasgow 19.9.14. This performance was part of 'GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland' programme. The review describes the performance and goes on to compare the artist's methodology to Nancy Holt (1938-2014). Prodger obliquely explores Holt's work alongside other sources as part of her film 'Stoneymollan Trail' (2015) commissioned by Margaret Tait Award and shown as part of Glasgow Film Festival 2015.

This essay responded to a brief from editors Francesca Zappia (independent curator, Glasgow) and TANK Art Space (Marseille), asking for the focus to be on women students at the Glasgow School of Art and at the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists in the late 19th century. The publication itself retrospectively is linked to the exhibition ‘Raoul Reynolds: a Retrospective’ (2016), curated by Zappia and Tank Art Space (Marseille) at Scotland Street Museum, Glasgow, as part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art; and La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille (2016). The editors asked for my text to utilise some elements of the fictitious Raoul Reynold's life; in particular, focussing on Reynolds' mother, an early feminist and artist who went to the Glasgow School of Art at the end of the 19th century. The editors specified that the text could take different forms, from the mother's diary, to a straight research text about this period. In my subsequent research of The Glasgow ...

This 35 minute presentation was given at University of Stirling Film and Media Department, at the invitation of Dr Sarah Neely, as part of their Communications, Media and Culture Research Seminars series. This seminar was a double bill focusing on the history of women photographers in Scotland, with my presentation delivered alongside Dr Alistair Scott, (Director, Screen Academy Scotland, a Creative Skillset Film Academy,Associate Professor, Film & Television, School of Arts and Creative Industries), Edinburgh Napier University, who spoke on Franki Raffles Archive. The presentation was a 35 min talk, on Jenny Gilbertson, M.E.M. Donaldson and Margaret Fay Shaw’s work, where I explored if these three women offered a different reading on the landscape and communities of the North from their better known male contemporaries. By referring to archival sources, alongside their film, photography and literature outputs, I presented their aims, methods and examples of their work. I concluded ...

By looking at examples of Margaret Fay Shaw and M.E.M. Donaldson’s work from 1920s'-1930s', this 35 minute paper assessed if these women offered a different reading on the landscape of Scotland from their better known male contemporaries. Through archival sources, alongside their photography and literature outputs, I presented their aims, methods and examples of their work. I also referred to film-maker Jenny Gilbertson (1902-1990), who moved to Shetland from Glasgow to live on a croft, producing her first film 'A Crofter's Life in Shetland' (60 mins) in 1931. In order to contextualize Shaw’s and Donaldson’s approaches to the Scottish Highland & Islands landscape and its communities, I compared their outputs to others including Werner Kissling, John Grierson, Paul Strand, Robert Moyes Adam and Alasdair Alpin MacGregor. I used this to illustrate how Donaldson, Shaw and Gilbertson captured the changing face and fate of remote Scottish communities. I concluded with ...

I am a contributor of two entries to the second edition of 'The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women', to be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2018. The entries are on two Scottish women filmmakers - Louise Annand (1915-2012) and Brigid Cooper (1913-1983). The editors of 'The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women' 2nd Edition are Elizabeth Ewan, Jane Rendall and Siân Reynolds ; with co-ordinating editor, Rose Pipes. The entry on Annand is 250 words; and the entry on Cooper, 300 words.

This essay looks at the motivations of M.E.M. Donaldson, Jenny Gilbertson and Margaret Fay Shaw for making documentary film and photography, and how they represented the subject in front of their camera. All three women lived for extended periods in the communities they were recording. Gilbertson moved to and lived on Shetland; Margaret Fay Shaw lived for six years with the sisters Peigi and Mairi MacRae in their croft at North Glendale, South Uist; and M.E.M. Donaldson built her own house in Ardnamurchan. Through comparison of their work and processes to their better known male contemporaries, such as John Grierson and Werner Kissling, who were also documenting Scottish rural communities, the essay frames their work in a wider national and international context of the documentary photography and film making of the inter-war years. The essay draws upon key archival sources at Canna House National Trust for Scotland, Shetland Museum & Archive, Inverness Museum & Gallery and National ...

'Franki Raffles: Observing Women at Work' was a paper presented as part of 'Franki Raffles Study Day' at University of St Andrews, an event organised by Dr Catherine Spencer. The paper discussed the curatorial decisions in presenting Raffles' work in the 2017 exhibition 'Franki Raffles: Observing Women at Work', Reid Gallery, The Glasgow School of Art. It then contextualised Raffles' work within wider field of second wave feminist art practice that examined womens' labour and working conditions, including The Hackney Flashers Collective, Berwick Film Collective, Mary Kelly and Jo Spence. Given that Raffles' work has been missing from a reappraisal of this period, the paper concluded in assessing aspects of Raffles' photography that give a unique insight and comment on labour, gender and class. This study day, organised by the Contemporary Art in Scotland Tate British Art Network sub-group and the St Andrews Centre for Contemporary Art, bought together recent research on the feminist documentary photographer Franki Raffles, who produced a significant body of material during the 1980s and 1990s addressing the experiences of women workers in Scotland and globally. It explored Raffles’ career and its wider connections with activism, documentary and photographic practice from the 1980s to the current moment, featuring presentations, discussions, and a viewing session of material from Raffles’ archive in the University's Photographic Special Collections.

By looking at examples of Margaret Fay Shaw, Jenny Gilbertson, M.E.M. Donaldson and Violet Banks’ work from 1920s'-1930s', this 45 minute talk will assess if these women offered a different reading on the landscape of Scotland from their better known male contemporaries. Through archival sources, alongside their photography and literature outputs, I will present their aims, methods and examples of their work. In order to contextualize these women’s approaches to the Scottish Highland & Islands landscape and its communities, I will compare their outputs to others including Werner Kissling, John Grierson, Paul Strand, Robert Moyes Adam and Alasdair Alpin MacGregor. This talk will also, in the context of CAMPLE LINE’s exhibition, refer to the lantern slides of Kissling’s mother, Johanna Kissling, who travelled as a tourist to St Kilda and Lewis in 1905. St Kilda’s inhabitants were oft-filmed and photographed, often as a curiosity of a ‘primitive’ way of life. Johanna Kissling’s...

The event which is in front of her eyes: 1930s' Scottish Highland and Islands life- the documentary photography and film of M.E.M. Donaldson, Jenny Gilbertson and Margaret Fay Shaw. Brownrigg, J (2016) The Drouth, 54. pp. 64-82. ISSN 1474-6190 https://issuu.com/drouth/docs/the_event_which_is_in_front_of_her_

This essay looks at the motivations of M.E.M. Donaldson, Jenny Gilbertson and Margaret Fay Shaw for making documentary film and photography, and how they represented the subject in front of their camera. All three women lived for extended periods in the communities they were recording. Gilbertson moved to and lived on Shetland; Margaret Fay Shaw lived for six years with the sisters Peigi and Màiri MacRae in their croft at North Glendale, South Uist; and M.E.M. Donaldson built her own house in Ardnamurchan. Through comparison of their work and processes to their better known male contemporaries, such as John Grierson and Werner Kissling, who were also documenting Scottish rural communities, the essay frames their work in a wider national and international context of the documentary photography and film making of the inter-war years. The essay draws upon key archival sources at Canna House National Trust for Scotland, Shetland Museum & Archive, Inverness Museum & Gallery and National Library of Scotland.

‘Contemporary Curating in a Heritage Context’. In: Advancing Engagement. A Handbook for Academic Museums, 3 . Museums Etc, Edinburgh and Boston, pp. 211-241. ISBN 978-1-910144-41-1 [hardback]; 978-1-910144-40-4 [paperback], Brownrigg, Jenny (2014)

My chapter ‘Contemporary Curating in a Heritage Context’ appears in publication ‘Advancing Engagement’ in ‘A Handbook for Academic Museums’. It details my approach to curating the public exhibitions programme in the Mackintosh Museum, Mackintosh Building, The Glasgow School of Art, from 2009-2014.

The Mackintosh Museum, built in 1909, is at the heart of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterwork, The Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building. With its high level of architectural detail, influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and Mackintosh’s fascination with Japanese architecture and culture, the museum is the antithesis of the white cube model.

This chapter explores how contemporary curating can engage with a specific historical context, in terms of people, place and collection. It also examines how contemporary art practice, through the commissioning process, can become the bridge between the historical and the contemporary. How can an exhibition echo the unique attitude of the building to enable past, present and future to exist simultaneously? In what ways can curators work to contextualize heritage with contemporary practice, to provide innovative access points for diverse audiences including tourists seeking the historical and academic audiences seeking the contemporary?

To establish the background, the chapter begins by broadly describing the conditions of curating exhibition programmes for UK Higher Education Art and Design Institutions. It then defines the context at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and goes on to outline my own curatorial methodologies relating to working within this particular environment.