{"id":216220,"date":"2025-12-29T11:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/216220\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T11:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:37:10","slug":"creating-artwork-slowly-brought-me-back-to-me-manx-artist-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/216220\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Creating artwork slowly brought me back to me,’ Manx artist says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca BrahdeIsle of Man<\/p>\n

\"BETHLEMBETHLEM GALLERY<\/p>\n

Bethany Williams said recovering from a chronic illness was challenging<\/p>\n

Creating artwork “slowly brought me back to me” while recovering from chronic illness, a Manx artist has said.<\/p>\n

This Wild, Achingly, Beautiful Place, which is on display in London, was created by Bethany Williams from Douglas and was inspired by her journey to recovery.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Williams was diagnosed with a condition called new daily persistent headache, which causes severe facial and head pain, and while she had gone into remission it returned in 2022 – this time with more severe symptoms, leaving her bedbound.<\/p>\n

The exhibition was “a love letter to the land that held me, the pain that changed me, and the version of myself I never expected to meet”, she said.<\/p>\n

\"BETHLEMBETHLEM GALLERY<\/p>\n

Bethany Williams said her designs were inspired by the Manx landscape and her recovery<\/p>\n

She said: “For a year and a half, I was bedbound, and then I have been slowly improving, but it was really challenging.”<\/p>\n

During that period, Williams, who had recently won the British Fashion Council and Vogue Fashion Designer Fund, which supports emerging talent, moved back to the Isle of Man from London. <\/p>\n

“I found tools to navigate life with, and in the Isle of Man I had the time and space to connect with my creative process,” she continued.<\/p>\n

Throughout her recovery, she explored things like ceramics and being out in nature, which she said “slowly brought me back to me”.<\/p>\n

“For the exhibition, we have developed light sculptures,” she said, “and because I was really light sensitive, I wanted to use it as a marker of my recovery.”<\/p>\n

\"BETHLEMBETHLEM GALLERY<\/p>\n

The exhibition is on at Bethlem Gallery in London until the end of January<\/p>\n

Her first solo exhibition, the display includes three textile light sculptures which show the different stages of recovery, along with porcelain sculptures, paintings, a fabric installation and a wooden screen.<\/p>\n

Williams said the display encapsulated her road to recovery, which had been “quite painful, but it came with some really beautiful life lessons”.<\/p>\n

“I was really inspired by the landscape while I was back on the Isle of Man,” she said, such as the standing stones, the highlands, and trees which had been shaped by strong winds.<\/p>\n

Drawn to higher areas where blueberries, gorse and heather would grow, she said those landscapes were “beautifully bleak”.<\/p>\n

“I was trying to create this ghostly, beautiful, eerie feeling in the work, like when you lose yourself and you slowly return back to yourself,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a love letter to the land that held me, the pain that changed me, and the version of myself I never expected to meet.”<\/p>\n

The exhibition, which is currently on in Bethlem Gallery in London until the end of January, will be on display at the House of Manannan in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebecca BrahdeIsle of Man BETHLEM GALLERY Bethany Williams said recovering from a chronic illness was challenging Creating artwork…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-216220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}