FAMILY portraits with a twist are the subject of Trish Morrissey's exhibition at Impressions Gallery, York, from July 10 to September 11.

Commissioned by the gallery in Castlegate, New Works comprises photographs and video work created over a two-year period, with its inspiration drawn from family photo albums and family relationships.

For her series of elaborately staged portraits, Morrissey worked closely with her elder sister to impersonate family members - both real and imagined - as they re-enacted memories familiar to us all, such as childhood birthdays and seaside holidays.

The resulting series of colour photographs is entitled Seven Years, a reference to the age gap between Morrissey and her sister. She made the images at her former family home, using old clothes found in her parents' attic or searching second-hand shops for the perfect prop to recreate in meticulous detail the atmosphere of the Seventies and Eighties.

In contrast to most family photos, the people in her images rarely smile, allowing the viewer to concentrate on the gestures and body language that reveal hidden tensions between family members. The photographs are at once nostalgic and unsettling.

They will be accompanied by two new video works. In the bittersweet Eighteen And Forty Five, two women wear a wedding dress as they dance in the harsh surroundings of a back yard, their faces never revealed. Eleven And Three Quarters shows a small boy chasing an elusive rabbit around a garden, and as with the first video, it evokes a sense of yearning, a feeling of not quite being able to grasp dreams.

Trish Morrissey was born in Dublin in 1967 and lives and works in London. She has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and in Vienna, Sao Paulo and Paris, and New Works will be shown at the Gardner Arts Centre, University of Sussex, later this year in a Photoworks tour.

On July 17, she will join Impressions curator Anne McNeill in conversation from 2pm to 3.30pm at the York gallery. Tickets for this discussion are free but booking is essential on 01904 654724 or to enquiries@impressions-gallery.com.

Impressions is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm. Admission is free.

Updated: 09:09 Friday, June 25, 2004