Bethan Hurford

When living in crisis, we return to basics. In a crisis we seek comfort. Bethan has been referencing a return to basics during the coronavirus pandemic by merging craft with fine art to suggest the ways in which we cope in a disaster. She has been using fabric throughout her practice as a method of providing comfort. She takes influence from the close relationship we have with fabric in our daily lives with clothes and bed sheets and how fabric has kept us safe during the pandemic using face masks.

Science has been a huge influence on Bethan’s work. She studies petri dishes to understand the make-up of viruses to help inform her practice. She creates a relationship between science and art by making fabric prints of petri dish imagery. This highlights the importance of both science and art in the understating of viruses, as they both inform each other.

By merging art and science, Bethan designed a custom fabric using printing techniques to create petri dish inspired imagery which she translated into a pattern. She paints and sews into this fabric to suggest the importance of the hand during the pandemic crisis. It has been used in messages multiple times as a method of stopping the virus spreading by washing hands and not touching others. By creating haptic art, she transforms the touch we have all been lacking into work that speaks of the crisis we have all faced.

In brief, creativity has helped Bethan live through a crisis.