Bettina Furnée
I am a Dutch-born artist based in Cambridge, with a studio at Wysing Arts Centre. My site-specific work is intrinsically linked with the public, existing between performance, installation and moving image. Collaboration is at the heart of my practice and I work with writers, musicians, participants and others to realise projects that challenge dominant narratives and amplify voices of the community. I situate my projects in places that are invested with power, such as a church, library or bunker.
My work explores the instability of language using word play, slippage, text and sound to explore social constructs, beliefs and our innate need for belonging and survival. For instance, Even You Song was a choral evensong based on interviews with twelve couples about a potential space mission, and this premiered at Peterborough Cathedral, before touring in 2019. Powerhouse was a temporary installation, posters, archival work and film, which resulted from a durational word association game staged at Cambridge University Library. Lines of Defence was an installation of lettered flags that fell from the cliffs into the sea, with 17 meters of land, during the course of a year. The installation and film of Lines of Defence was part of larger project If Ever You’re In The Area addressing fear of invasion and climate chaos with site-specific works at historic military sites in Suffolk and Essex and a solo show at Firstsite, Colchester.
I have been awarded public commissions, exhibitions, residencies and support for self-initiated projects. In 2020 I was selected for Syllabus VI professional development programme by Eastside Projects, Iniva, Spike Island, Studio Voltaire and Wysing Arts Centre.
Short biography
Based in Cambridge (UK), Bettina Furnée is studio artist at Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn, where she was studio artist representative on the Board of Directors (2010-15). She read art history and was trainee and studio assistant at David Kindersley’s Workshop, before graduating with a Masters in Public Art from Chelsea College of Arts.
She has been supported by art organisations and public sector bodies nationally. Her live events, public commissions and solo shows include: choral evensong Even You Song (with Lucy Sheerman), site-specific installation A World To Come (A+C 2019); solo show Counting In A Different Language (Ruskin Gallery 2015); public art for residents Near Holme, Call Your Home Poetic (MKGallery 2018); audio visual roadside works Live Neutral Earth (Central Bedfordshire Council/Amey 2014-18); international residency Material Response (National Gallery of the Bahamas/Ipswich & Colchester Museums 2011-12); AR pilot Reality Rules (ARU/Futurecity 2012); glass screens I Will Do Right (Ministry of Justice 2009); live event Powerhouse (Kettles Yard/The Arthouse 2008) and If Ever You’re In The Area with coastal installations and solo show (Firstsite 2005-06).
C.V.
B E T T I N A F U R N E E
Born: Den Haag, The Netherlands
Lives and works in Cambridge, U.K.
Studio: Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn
Email: bettinafurnee@gmail.com
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 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 (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 (with Dylan Banarse), New Rules for a Fair Society AR pilot, 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, live event BBC Radio 3
Selected commissions
2023 Outlook, South Blockhouse heritage scheme, Hull, commissioned by Hull City Council
2023 I am more like this.), neon text piece, Coventy Cathedral, Sheffield Cathedral, St Marks (Sheffield), Doncaster Minster, commissioned by Sheffield University
2019 A World To Come, installation at All Saints and St Andrew, Kingston, commissioned by Art + Christianity
2018 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
1999 Lucy in the Sky, mobile, Lucy Cavendish College Library, Cambridge, commissioned by Lucy Cavendish College Roll Committee
1998 Don’t Push Me, seven granite bollards, Cardinal Park, Ipswich, commissioned by Moore, Piet and Brookes, landscape architects
1998 Witness, bridge parapet, Church Street, Bilston, commissioned by Wolverhampton MBC
1997 State of Rock, cast stone curved benches, Shoreditch Campus, poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah, commissioned by Hackney Community College
1995 Moon Pool, Warwick University, commissioned by Warwick University
1993 Inscriptions on pool edge (T S Eliot) , Victoria Square, Birmingham, commissioned by Birmingham City Council
1990 Portland stone panel and floor slab, Great Peter Street, London, commissioned by Arts Council England
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)
2024 House Guest 2024, 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 (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
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
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
2008 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
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, music Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Peterborough Cathedral choir, First Hand Records
2017 Neutral Earth Live, CD, three sound compositions (sound artist 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