Physical Encounters

Though originally trained in Performance and Dance at Dartington College of Arts, Devon, Bethany Murray (b. 1971) began her foray into the creative industries through painting. Both of these disciplines are seen in the featured photographs. Through changing environments, the compositions explore the female body and its larger place in constructing identity. Murray’s images present physicality as a language; each scene is deeply somatic, with limbs wrapping round the interiors of tables, windows and seats as if to connect with the materials on a deeper level. The artist uses her own body to move around interior spaces with fluidity and intimacy – decoding a sense of self through everyday surroundings. Experience, in this way, is built around sensory stimuli, where a house can be a projection of personhood – an anchor point for understanding our place within the world. www.bethanymurray.co.uk.