Writer in Residence 22 - 23

Two brightly lit colourful sculptures in a dark outdoor space
Beth Kettel, A Mutual Influence, 2021, Courtesy Anna Arca

In 2022 - 2023, Nottingham Contemporary welcomes Beth Kettel as writer in residence. Kettel will explore ideas of land formation with the continual reshaping of spatial patterns from environmental data related to topography and mapping with the continual reshaping of meaning in narrative. Working on an experimental text linking ideas around: interrelationships; human, organism and environmental communication and defense strategies; consciousness; repression in both earthly elements and human emotion; the idea of gut ghosts as residing physical pain of psychological trauma and the ghosts of ingested trauma-ridden farmed plants and animals; perception and the senses across life forms.

Expanding from an experimental writing practice, Beth Kettel’s work encompasses text, costume, sound, video and performance. Interested in language & meaning-making through all five semiotic systems: linguistic, visual, aural, gestural & spatial. With an interest in alternative forms of communication between living organisms; translations of interior and exterior experience; interrelationships between species & environment and mental health of humans, plants and animals. Kettel’s work layers and interconnects disparate ideas spanning philosophy, psychology, ecology and personal experience.

Beth Kettel is a Nottingham based artist who was recently nominated for Kleinwort Hambros Emerging Artist Prize and has featured in print & online publications such as Contemporary Art Society - Artist To Watch; This Is Tomorrow; Mousse Magazine; Dazed Digital. Kettel has delivered artist talks, lectures and workshops around the UK and Internationally, including: Non-Space, Aarhus; Camberwell UCA; Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL; Field of Streams, Brecon Beacons; Sheffield Hallam and Nottingham NTU.

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