Cary: The Mariam Cycle

In 2013 we created Cary: The Mariam Cycles, at the Copeland Gallery close to the Bussey Building in Peckham. We were working with Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedy of Mariam, which is the first play to be written and published by a woman in the UK. We were interested in the way that women playwrights exist below the radar in the British archive, despite the very unique perspective their plays bring.

When we found this gallery space, we became interested in what might have happened if Cary had been born in another age, pursued another art form. We imagined the gallery as a 'counterfactual imaginary' - a world in which Cary was a celebrated artist, and the Copeland Gallery celebrating her in a major retrospective. We created installations, tour guides and performances around this, interweaving visual world of women artists' work with Elizabeth Cary's playworld, creating a playful, haunting installation-cum-performance.

2013 Copeland Gallery, Peckham