Artist Statement
I am a Dutch-born artist based in Cambridge (UK). My text-based and situated practice includes sculptural installation, live events and moving image. My work is closely linked with the public and mostly operates outside the gallery context. I work collaboratively with writers, musicians and participants on projects that challenge dominant narratives and amplify voices from the community.
My work explores the fluidity of language using wordplay, interviews, polls, slippage, song, absurdity and the everyday to evoke themes of agency, migration and survival. For instance, Britheg Brown is an original song for the last of the High Brown Fritillary in Wales, with lyrics infused with the words of local wildlife volunteers, and performed for film by participants. Even You Song was a choral evensong based on interviews with twelve couples about a speculative space flight, and this premiered at Peterborough Cathedral, before touring in 2019. Powerhouse was a digital text installation, set of posters, archival work and film, derived from a live word association game staged at Cambridge University Library. Lines of Defence was an installation of lettered flags that eroded from the cliffs along the historically defended coast of East Anglia, conflating military and environmental threat.
Bettina Furnée short biography
Based in Cambridge (UK), Bettina Furnée is studio artist at Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn. She read art history and was studio assistant stone in stonecarving/lettering at David Kindersley’s Workshop, and holds a Masters in Public Art from Chelsea College of Arts. In 2020 she was selected for Syllabus VI professional development programme hosted by Eastside Projects, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire, Iniva and Wysing Arts Centre. She is currently artist in residence for Natur Am Byth, Wales’ green recovery programme.
She has been awarded public commissions, solo exhibitions, residencies and support for self-initiated projects by art organisations and public sector bodies nationally and internationally. Her live events, public commissions and exhibited works include: filmed performance of Britheg Brown (Natural Resources Wales 2025); multi-screen video installation Out Of Our Earth (Broadside Gallery, Letchworth 2025); Even You Song, a choral evensong (with Lucy Sheerman & Cheryl Frances Hoad) premiered at Peterborough Cathedral 2017, and toured 2019; public art for residents Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic (MKGallery 2018); audio visual roadside works Live Neutral Earth (Central Bedfordshire Council 2018); international residency Material Response (National Gallery of the Bahamas 2012); AR pilot Reality Rules (Futurecity 2012); UK Supreme Court glass screens I Will Do Right (Ministry of Justice 2009); live event Powerhouse (Kettle’s Yard 2008) and If Ever You’re In The Area with coastal installations and solo show (Firstsite 2005).
C.V.
BETTINA FURNEE
Born: Den Haag, The Netherlands
Lives and works in Cambridge, U.K.
Studio: Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn
Email: bettinafurnee@gmail.com
Website: http://bettinafurnee.co.uk
Instagram: @bettinafurnee
Education
2020-2021 Syllabus VI, Eastside Projects, Iniva, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire, Wysing Arts Centre
1997-1999 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 Trainee and studio assistant stonecarving/lettering, David Kindersley’s Workshop, Cambridge
1981-1983 Archaeology and Art History, Leiden University, Netherlands
Live events
2025 Britheg Brown, Last Of The Species In Wales, performance for film, St Brides Major, Wales
2022 Even You Song (with Lucy Sheerman), Our Place In Space, Midsummer Common, Cambridge
2019 Even You Song Tour of East Anglia 2019 (with Lucy Sheerman), King’s Lynn, Kingston, Cambridge, London, supported by Wysing Arts Centre, King’s Lynn Festival and Young Norfolk Arts
2017 Even You Song (with Lucy Sheerman & Cheryl Frances-Hoad) choral evensong, world premiere Peterborough Cathedral, supported by Metal Peterborough
2012 Reality Rules, New Rules for a Fair Society proposed by citizens, Augmented Reality (with Dylan Banarse), 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, Space for 10 residency, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (with The Arthouse, Wakefield)
2005-6 If Ever You’re in the Area, coastal installations Bawdsey, live event Naze Tower/BBC Radio 3
Selected commissions (2000 onwards)
2024-27 Britheg Brown, Last Of The Species In Wales, film, commissioned by Natural Resources Wales for Natur Am Byth
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 A World To Come, installation at All Saints and St Andrew, Kingston, commissioned by Art + Christianity
2017-18 Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic, public art for Claridge Park, Milton Keynes Village, commissioned by MK Gallery
2014-18 Live Neutral Earth, public art scheme (with Marcus Leadley), Houghton Regis, commissioned by Amey and Central Bedfordshire Council
2013 Collective, participatory event and prints, commissioned by Wysing Corporate Collective
2013 HIGHST, Bedford High Street, commissioned by Mary Portas Pilot and Bedford Creative Arts
2012 Het Huis des Levens, Portland stone public 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, stenciled texts, poetry by Year 5, Millbank Primary, Westminster, London, commissioned by Futurecity Ltd and Barratt Homes
2003 Paradise Is, steel/copper structure, signs, planting, lighting, Letchworth Garden City Centenary art commission, commissioned by North Hertfordshire District Council
2003 Running through the blue…, mild steel backlit panels with text by Neil Rollinson, Eastrop Park link tunnel, Basingstoke, commissioned by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
2001 Space/Place, cast stone tables and seats with text submitted by park users, Heigham Park, Norwich, commissioned by Norwich City Council
2000 Return of the Rivers and Spell against Sorrow, modular stone seats with carved text, New Operations Centre, Bath, commissioned by Wessex Water Services Ltd
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic, MKGallery project space, Milton Keynes
2015 Counting In A Different Language, Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
2011 Material Response, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich
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 (2000 onwards)
2025 Leaving Were The Ones Who Could Not Stay, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City
2024 House Guests 2024, David Parr House, Cambridge
2022 Infection, Syllabus VI and Spam Press, Good Press, Glasgow
2015 Expanded Studio, Primary, Nottingham & Aid&Abet, Cambridge
2012 Roaming, Aid&Abet, Cambridge
2012 Poetry, Language, Code, Ruskin Gallery, ARU, Cambridge (curated by Bronac Ferran)
2011 Invisible Dust, Science Festival, Cambridge (curated by Alice Sharp)
2011 The Tyranny of Grammar, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton (curated by Catherine Hemelryk)
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
Residencies
2024-27 Natur Am Byth, High Brown Fritillary project, Natural Resources Wales
2014-17 Time and Space (with Lucy Sheerman), Metal, Peterborough
2013 Cambridge Sustainability Residency, Sustainability Institute and School of Art, ARU
2011 Material Response, Eastern Exchanges/London Olympiad 2012, Nassau, Bahamas
2009 Escalator Visual Arts, Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn
2007-08 Space for 10, Kettle’s yard, Cambridge (The Arthouse, Wakefield)
Publications
2026 The Deep Focus Reader, Artist Moving Image, Goldsmith Cinema 2025-2026
2025 Leaving Were The Ones Who Could Not Stay, Anna McNay, Studio International
2025 WE ARE HERE, exhibition text Leaving Were The Ones Who Could Not Stay, Sarah Wood
2022 Infection, Collaboration Syllabus VI/Spam Press publication
2020 The New English Landscape, Ken Worpole, Dec. 2020
2023 From Powerhouse to Albatross; Reading the future of the book, Bettina Furnée in Future Books, Ed. Pia Pol & Astrid Vorstermans, Valiz, Amsterdam
2020 Spirit of Place, Artists, Writers & the British Landscape, Susan Owens, Thames & Hudson
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, music Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Peterborough Cathedral choir, First Hand Records
2017 Neutral Earth Live, CD, three sound compositions (with 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 Roaming, exhibition pamphlet with essay by Colin Perry
2012 Here’s Luck, Bettina Furnée, ed. Michael McMillan, 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 with essay by Elizabeth Fisher, firstsite, Colchester
1995 Words & Pictures Issue 2, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard