Anne Bean

Anne Bean (b. 1950) is a London-based artist whose artistic practice, spanning over 50 years, has been pivotal in the development of live and performance art in the UK. Captivated by processes, Bean is a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, installation, sound, photography, painting and drawing. 

Since 1970, Anne Bean has presented solo and collaborative projects, worldwide. Recent solo projects include Reflect (2023), commissioned by Lumiere, Durham; and Sparks and Spells, 2022, commissioned by Turner Contemporary for the exhibition Stephen Cripps: In Real Life. Recent group exhibitions include Women in Revolt: Art and Activism in the UK 1970–90, Tate Britain, 2023. Bean’s work From Source to Mouth (2020) saw her install a vast Aeolian Harp on the foreshore at Limehouse, in east London, at the height of the Covid pandemic. 

Collaboration is central to Bean’s work, and she recently worked with Zambian artist Serah Chule at the Venice Biennale 2024. She is engaged in ongoing work with women from countries of conflict as a member of a collective called PAVES; as well as a worldwide, decade-long sound exploration, during the 1980’s, as part of Bow Gamelan Ensemble. A year-long collaboration with the notion of other possibilities of self, A Transpective (2012), saw Bean leave her home in London to take on another name and live a different life.

CANDLE STICK, 2024

A collaboration with the artist/​musician Ansuman Biswas, was part of a day event curated by artist Martin O’Brien’s The Last Breath Society exploring mortality. With a reigniting candle between them, the performers used improvisatory vocals to explore levels of breath, interacting with the flame which quivered, danced or was extinguished, leaving the audience and performers momentarily in darkness. As the candle reignited with a tiny glow spluttering into life, there was a sense of resurrection and of the artists nurturing a tiny being between them. The work veered from poignant to hilarious, tender to intense.

IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, 2023 (extract 2 minutes)

In Search of the Miraculous is a video shot using ​‘backwards speak’ then reversed, so that time becomes fluid and unrecognisable and actions are imbued with enchantment. In this video, Anne Bean conjures with notions of the ​‘miraculous,’ with the recognition that the first public showing would be in Walsingham, Norfolk, where a miracle is said to have taken place nearly 1000 years ago and where thousands of pilgrims congregate in their own search for the miraculous. The soundtrack uses ​‘pyrophones’, instruments played by flames. Presented at Walsingham Parish Hall, as part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival and England & Co, London (2023).

SPARKS AND SPELLS, 2022 (extract 1 minute 30 seconds)

The film, Sparks and Spells, was commissioned by Turner Contemporary as part of the exhibition Stephen Cripps: In Real Life, which used Cripps’s materials held with the Henry Moore Institute Archive. Anne Bean recorded several memories of times shared with Stephen Cripps in the 70’s and 80’s. She worked with the sound artist, Fergus Kelly, to produce the audio using these memories, Cripps’s audio archives and Bow Gamelan Ensemble recordings. The visuals consisted of a meditative action of sparklers making spirals, as they burned down, on thermally responsive paper. Alex Eisenberg shot and edited the film. The work was presented during the Stephen Cripps: In Real Life, exhibition at Turner Contemporary and at a related symposium at Turner Contemporary.

REFLECT, 2023

Reflect, commissioned by Lumiere, Durham, was a lightwork with the word ​‘Reflect,’ in LED neon, upside-down, so it reflected the right way up in the River Wear. It responded, as a reflection, to wind, rain, tide and current, receptive to these planetary and cosmic forces. It also captured the nuances of the word ​‘reflect,’ making the act of one’s own contemplation as intrinsic to the work as its manifestation.