make shift — Anna Freeman Bentley

Monica De Cardenas is delighted to present make shift by Anna Freeman Bentley, the London based artist’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland.

Anna Freeman Bentley (London, 1982) has been making paintings focused on transient spaces that expose the fleeting nature of our lives for almost two decades. make shift is a body of work that explores the temporary workspaces set up around a film set on location in an opulent house-turned-museum in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The changes in function evoke an uneasy atmosphere; walk-in-wardrobes where everything should have a place are filled untidily with plastic bags of props, a bathroom is repurposed as the costume department, a bedroom is an ad hoc cast room. Although subtle, nothing seems quite right. Utilitarian items introduced by the film crew sit incongruously amongst the house’s ornate fixtures and fittings and other curiosities on display, such well-established objects seemingly interfering with the day-to-day business of production.

make shift is a continuation of the artist’s ongoing investigation into the fabricated spaces of film sets. In 2022, Freeman Bentley exhibited a body of work titled make believe. The paintings explored a film set in the UK, also considering ideas of illusion and artifice, taking the constructions of the film’s art department as the starting point for the artist’s process of making paintings.

Freeman Bentley paints emotionally charged, unpeopled interiors. This interest has led her to explore several different subjects as locations in which to situate ideas of place, longing, and artifice. Her work has investigated a range of spaces from junk shops and flea markets to fine dining restaurants, private members clubs, and upmarket tourist destinations. Her practice explores the uncanny within architectural spaces, depicting interiors imbued with a heightened emotional or psychological intensity. The absence of figures enables Freeman Bentley to imply narrative, creating worlds within worlds that contain subtle signifiers revealing the artifice and complex dynamics of manmade environments.

Anna Freeman Bentley received her BA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2004 and her MA from the Royal College of Art in London in 2010, where she lives and works. In 2019 she participated in the artist residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia and in 2012 the Artist in Restaurant residency at Michelin-starred restaurant Pied a Terre in London. Her works are included in the Tia Collection, Santa Fe; Museum X in Beijing; Hotel Crillon in  Paris; Hogan Lovells in London; and the Ahmanson Collection in Irvine, California.