Bettina Furnee
- Website ,
- Youtube ,
- Vimeo ,
- Own website ,
- Reality Rules ,
- Powerhouse ,
- If Ever
My artistic practice is rooted in notions of site and centred on the use of language, ranging from live events, installation and moving image to public realm commissions. I often work collaboratively, and audiences are part of my research or creative process by responding to predetermined language structures or open invitations. Driven by existential and societal concerns, my practice lies somewhere between poetics and politics and concerns the slippage between individual and collective, whilst viewing our accidental place and time in this world through the lens of displacement and agency. Bettina Furnée is based in Cambridge and is studio artist at Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn.
Education
2020-2021 Syllabus VI, Eastside Projects, Iniva, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire, Wysing Arts Centre1997-1999
BA Hons Art History, Anglia Ruskin University (First Class)
1992-1994 MA Theory and Practice of Public Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design
1983-1989 Studio assistant, David Kindersley’s Workshop, Cambridge
1981-1983 Archaeology and Art History, Leiden University, Netherlands
Live events
2022 Even You Song (with Lucy Sheerman), Our Place In Space, Midsummer Common, Cambridge
2019 Even You Song Tour of East Anglia 2019 (King’s Lynn, Kingston, Cambridge, London), supported by Wysing Arts Centre, King’s Lynn Festival and Young Norfolk Arts
2017 Even You Song, choral evensong, world premiere Peterborough Cathedral (with Lucy Sheerman & Cheryl Frances-Hoad), part of Time and Space Residency, Metal, Peterborough
2012 Reality Rules (with Dylan Banarse), New Rules for a Fair Society in augmented reality, Parker’s Piece, Cambridge, Visualise Art & Technology commissions by Anglia Ruskin University and Futurecity
2008 Powerhouse, 8-week live event, web archive, film, posters, Cambridge University Library, part of Space for 10, 8-week residency at Kettle’s yard, Cambridge (with The Arthouse, Wakefield)
2006 If Ever You’re in the Area, The Naze Tower, Walton-on-Naze, Lines of Approach live performance day with BBC Radio Essex
2005 If Ever You’re in the Area, five temporary installations, East Lane, Bawdsey, Suffolk
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic, MKGallery project space, with text by Fiona Boundy
2015 Counting In A Different Language, Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University
2011 Material Response, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich, part of Eastern Exchanges, International Exchange residency, Nassau, Bahamas
2006 If Ever You’re in the Area, The Naze Tower, Walton-on-Naze
2005 If Ever You’re in the Area, firstsite @ the Minories, Colchester
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 House Guests 2024: Letter Word Text, David Parr House, Cambridge
2022 Infection, Syllabus VI and Spam Press, Good Press, Glasgow
2015 Expanded Studio Project, Primary, Nottingham & Aid&Abet, Cambridge
2012 Roaming, Aid&Abet, Cambridge
2012 Poetry, Language, Code, Ruskin Gallery, ARU, Cambridge
2011 Invisible Dust, Science Festival, Cambridge
2011 The Tyranny of Grammar, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton
2010 Late Shift, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
2010 Pulse 10 Fringe Festival, The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
2010 Salon Video Art Prize, Matt Roberts Arts, London
2010 Wysing Arts Contemporary Presents, Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn
2003 Making it East, firstsite, Colchester
2003 Out There, Craft Outside, Crafts Council Gallery, London
1998 The Art of Remembering, Blickling Hall, The National Trust and Memorials by Artists
1997 William Morris Revisited, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
1996 Words Revealed, MAC, Birmingham
Selected commissions (2000 onwards)
2023-24 Outlook, South Blockhouse heritage scheme, Hull, commissioned by Hull City Council
2022-23 I am more like this.), neon text piece, Coventy Cathedral, Sheffield Cathedral, St Marks (Sheffield), Doncaster Minster, commissioned by Sheffield University
2018-19 The World To Come, site-specific installation for All Saints and St Andrew parish church, Kingston, commissioned by Art + Christianity
2017-18 Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic, public art for Claridge Park, Middleton, commissioned by MK Gallery
2014-18 Live Neutral Earth, public art for Woodside Linkroad, commissioned by Central Bedfordshire Council
2013 Collective, Wysing Corporate Collective, event and prints
2013 HIGHST, Bedford High Street, commissioned by Mary Portas Pilot and Bedford Creative Arts
2012 Het Huis des Levens, Portland stone memorial, Groningen (NL), commissioned by Stichting Historisch Joods Groningen
2009 I Will Do Right, United Kingdom Supreme Court, glass entrance screen, Courtroom Two screen and library doors, Parliament Square, London, commissioned by Ministry of Justice
2007 Piped Poetry, 52 stenciled texts on water pipes, poetry by Year 5, Millbank Primary, Westminster, London, commissioned by Futurecity Ltd and Barratt Homes
2003 Paradise Is, steel/copper structure, light, signs, planting, Letchworth Garden City Centenary art commission, commissioned by North Hertfordshire District Council
2003 Running through the blue..., mild steel panels with text by Neil Rollinson for Eastrop Park link tunnel, commissioned by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
2001 Space/Place, concrete seats and stone pieces with text submitted by park users, Heigham Park, Norwich, commissioned by Norwich City Council
2000 Return of the Rivers and Spell against Sorrow, two sets of 3 modular stone seats, New Operations Centre, Bath, commissioned by Wessex Water Services Ltd
Residencies / Awards
2024 Natur Am Byth, National Green Recovery, Wales
2021 ACE DYCP Grant
2019 ACE Project Grant (with Lucy Sheerman) for Even You Song Tour of East Anglia
2015-17 ACE Grant for the Arts Award (with Lucy Sheerman) for Even You Song
2014-17 Time and Space Residency (with Lucy Sheerman), Metal, Peterborough
2013 Cambridge Sustainability Residency, Sustainability Institute and School of Art, ARU
2010-12 ACE Grants for the Arts Award (with Roam collective) for Roaming
2011 Eastern Exchanges/London Olympiad 2012, Material Response, International exchange residency, Nassau, Bahamas
2009 Escalator Visual Arts Retreat, Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn
2007-08 Space for 10 residency, Kettle’s yard, Cambridge (The Arthouse, Wakefield)
2004-06 ACE Grants for the Arts for If Ever You’re in the Area
Book / CD Publications
2022 Infection, Collaboration Syllabus VI/Spam Press publication
2018 Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic, project pamphlet with essay by Fiona Boundy
2017 Hard Werken, One For All, Graphic art and design 1979-1993 Ian Horton & Bettina Furnée, Valiz, Amsterdam
2017 Even You Song, CD, Peterborough Cathedral Choir, music Cheryl Frances Hoad, First Hand Records
2017 Neutral Earth Live, CD with three tracks, sound compositions by Marcus Leadley
2013 Oral History in the Visual Arts, Eds. Linda Sandino and Matthew Partington, Bloomsbury
2013 Visualise: Making Art in Context, ed. Bronac Ferran, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
2012 Here’s Luck / Bettina Furnée, AND Public, London
2008 Space for 10, The Arthouse, Wakefield
2008 Piped Poetry / Bettina Furnée (Limited edition with DVD), Futurecity, London
2006 If Ever You’re in the Area / Bettina Furnée (essay by Elizabeth Fisher), firstsite, Colchester
1995 Words & Pictures Issue 2, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard