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Ahead of the artist’s upcoming solo exhibition, Bethany Stead tells us about some of the things that have inspired her recent work
Bethany Stead’s work draws upon allegory, iconography, feminist theory, psychology and sci-fi through visual storytelling and object making, culminating in a symbolic space that disrupts our fragile and entangled socio-political fabric. Ahead of her solo exhibition at Sunderland’s Moving Gallery, which runs from Friday 16th-Friday 30th August, the artist tells us about some of the things that have inspired her recent work…
Much of my work is rooted in significant personal experiences alongside the everyday mundane, and peeling away beauty from those sometimes awkward, painful, absurd and humorous moments. I have periods where I gluttonously consume imagery, sound, film and words, and I try to build in times where I consume little, so I can absorb all that data, live in those symbolic spaces, and the real ones.
The drawings, paintings and sculptures in my new exhibition Snatch A Thread follow a series of characters living in subterranean spaces of underworlds, undergrowth and underbellies. Here are my Six of The Best from the last few months accompanying this body of work!
Music
Some of these works felt deeply personal and auto biographical, so it’s no surprise my music taste had me back to my indie/alt. teens; LCD Sound System, RJD2, Björk, and my mum’s favourite punk band in the 90’s, Skunk Anansie.
Film/TV
Two films; Men (2022), and Poor Things (2023). Both have had influence in my psyche through imagery and ideas and brought me great joy. I love anything surreal and folk horror. Me and my partner are never not watching a sci-fi series, he’s an artist too and it’s great to share a love of strangeness and the uncanny. We recently finished watching Severance (2022), and we’re currently watching Devs (2020), both slick and hilariously unnerving.
Podcasts
A modern epidemic, I have been lured into the world of podcasts. I love how niche they’ve become; I can search almost anything in my mind and there’ll be a deep dive, hot take on it. Haptic and Hue explores the different light textiles cast on the story of humanity, and the way in which cloth speaks to us. I have been largely influenced by this podcast, and love hearing and researching about the social history of textiles. It’s something I feel so close to yet find it difficult to engage with physically and aim to find better ways to incorporate textiles in my work in the future.
Articles of Interest is about what we wear, an insightful take on the clothing industry for fashion nerds and dilettantes alike. I’m very intrigued by clothes, style, fashion and how they signify sexuality, gender, class, everything. The host Avery Trufelman is my podcast crush. Art Fictions features guest artists discussing their work through the lens of a piece of fiction of their choosing. I particularly loved the episode with artist Helen Johnson who makes beautiful paintings exploring Lacanian Phycology, looking at The Birds 1957.
Books
I make reference to two non-fiction books as the inspiration for this show. The first is James Bridle’s Ways of Being (2022), in which he ‘considers the fascinating, uncanny and multiple ways of existing on earth. What we can learn from these other forms of intelligence and personhood, and how we can change our societies to live more equitably with one another and the non-human world’. It’s been a pivotal thing for me to read this year, mashing together thoughts I had around technology and ecology but couldn’t quite communicate.
The second is Mary Midgley’s Wickedness (2001). She was a philosopher known for her work on science, ethics, and animal rights, and lived and taught in Newcastle. In Wickedness, Midgley investigates the darkness of the human soul, analysing the capacity for real wickedness as an inevitable part of human nature. I wanted to explore an antithesis in the work, the desire to be less human and find different ways of being, but within that, the acceptance that we are curiously wicked and sinful creatures.
My studio bible is the Taschen Book of Symbols. And the most recent piece of fiction I read was Ursula K Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest, I cried, and still don’t have words for it yet.
Art
Historical: I’ve been looking a lot at classic Flemish painters, and Italian Renaissance. Bosch and Francesco Del Cossa. And recently looking at the forgotten Surrealist artist Marion Adnams, in preparation for my work to be shown in response alongside hers in an exhibition in October.
Contemporary: I’ve been revisiting an art theory course I did in September 2023, The Symbolic Language of the Unconscious by Chantal Powell. Chantal herself is an excellent artist who I’m always following, and in the course, I was introduced to the large-scale emotive drawings of Ann Mccoy. I’m also currently loving the sculpture work of Valerie Hammond.
Community
I haven’t always found communities to identify with growing up, from a semi-rural mining town in West Yorkshire, it was difficult to find people who saw the world in similar ways. But, in my early to late 20’s I’ve found so much solace in the queer community and finally feel a part of something.
I also recently started my dream job in a mental health art studio, and alongside that I’ve had my first year of personal psychotherapy sessions which feels huge and has really helped me in searching for my community, and sense of self.
