Profile

Biography

Kirsty’s research interest is in nineteenth and twentieth century sculpture, specifically issues of display, utilisation and reception within a global context. Her PhD thesis examines the varying and often contradictory utilisations of Herbert Ward’s sculptures of Congolese tribespeople across the circum-Atlantic world, from 1910 to the present day. Analysing specific exhibitions and dates, through archival documents and viewing the sculptures in situ, Kirsty’s thesis maps the complex visual relationships these displays provide, while revealing the socio-political context that Ward’s sculptures work within and convey, notably the colonial misrule in turn-of-the-century Congo.