Book Launch: Writings on Rose Finn-Kelcey’s 'The Restless Image' - Camden Art Centre
Type
Events
Format
In the Building
Date 9 Jul 2026
18:00-19:00
Price Free entry
Book

With readings from the publication followed by a conversation between editor Andrée Cooke and contributing writer Amy Tobin.

As the first pocket book published by the artist’s estate, the publication explores Finn-Kelcey’s iconic work The Restless Image: a discrepancy between the seen position and the felt position, (1975).

The series celebrates Finn-Kelcey’s legacy by engaging contemporary writers to respond to her oeuvre, focusing on a specific piece in her practice.

On the occasion of the launch, curator and artistic executor of the estate Andrée Cooke, alongside contributing writer Amy Tobin, will give readings from the book and be in conversation.

Copies will be available for purchase in our Shop. Please note, our galleries will close at 6pm.

The Speakers

‘By unearthing the archival depth of The Restless Image, this book captures the essence of Rose Finn- Kelcey: a restless pioneer whose multi-layered conceptualism was always balanced by a profound and compassionate inquiry into the human condition.’ Rachel Thomas, Chief Curator at the Hayward Gallery, London.

About the book

The Restless Image: a discrepancy between the seen position and the felt position, Rose Finn-Kelcey’s best known work, was inspired by a snapshot of her mother as a young woman, doing handstands on the beach with a friend. The artist’s photograph appears to enact an exuberant, impulsive gesture but the work’s subtitle suggests a divergence between the experience of the subject and what is visible to the spectator.

In 2013 Art Everywhere carried out a survey of the nation’s favourite British artworks. The Restless Image made it into the top thirty-five, alongside paintings such as Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott, Millais’s Ophelia, Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire and Lowry’s Going to the Match, establishing its status as a national classic.

Rose Finn-Kelcey was an inspirational artist and educator. Born in 1945, she lived in London until her death in 2014. Her work covers diverse themes and subject matter ranging from feminism and the weather to religion and power, expressed through performances, public commissions, sculpture, photography, installations and videos that rigorously question our perspectives on the world.

The Speakers

Amy Tobin is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Department of History of Art at the University of Cambridge. She examines this seminal piece, discussing archival material discovered after the artist’s death and revealing the development of The Restless Image and the performance works the artist created in tandem.

Practitioner and curator Andrée Cooke has cared for the legacy and long-term cultural stewardship of the estate of Rose Finn-Kelcey, her close friend of over twenty years, since Finn-Kelcey’s death. With a career spanning more than three decades across contemporary art, design and fashion, she regularly writes and speaks about the artist’s work.

Rose Finn-Kelcey is represented by Kate MacGarry, London.