Each month one of our Directors chooses an art.earth member to become ‘Artist of the Month’. What follows is a conversation with that artist, together with some examples of his or her work.
February 2018
Bethany Murray
from Clay Series
What are you working on at present?
I recently became a new mother and my art practice has woven itself through my pregnancy as I continued to photograph. I have been working with the experience of living movement inside of me- an incredible moment in my history of photographing the body.
I am now using the moving image to look at the movement development of us both together, so another person has both entered my life and entered the frame.
How would you describe your practice?
My practice is centered on the body and the environment in photography and the moving image. I primarily use my own body to perform in the work exploring both internal and external landscapes and how they interrelate.
The photographs are moving stills, which are made in choreographic sequences and directed as if in a film.
Each image can stand on it’s own but is always part of a longer narrative.
Who are your influences?
I have been influenced by women who have pioneered work with the body and used their own bodies in the act of making art. The female felt experience.
In dance: Pina Bausch, with her fierce eye on gender stereotypes whom I studied twenty years ago whilst I was at Dartington College of Arts in Devon.
Recently in somatics; Emile Conrad, a dancer from Los Angeles who developed Continuum movement which looks at the fluid body and how our bodies are linked to the environment.
In photography; Helena Almeida, Francesca Woodman and Ana Mendieta all who used their own bodies to perform in art practice.
In film; Sally Potter, with her use of poetic text and performance.
Writers; Helene Cixous and l’ecriture feminine and
Clarice Lispector writing outwards from the female body and experience.
.
Bethany Murray is an artist who has worked with the body for over twenty years. The work uses story, myth and place to show how linked we are to the environment.
She is also a co-director of the Trellis Foundation based at Schumacher College being set up to promote social and environmental innovation.
She works between London and Devon.