In Spring 2018 GRAIN commissioned artist David Bethell to create a temporary camera obscura for Ilam Park, Staffordshire Moorlands.

Artist David Bethell is inspired by the rural landscape and natural environment.   He frequently uses performance, film and photography in his work to animate his installations and sculptures within the location and to explore narratives that speak of heritage, class and the land.

Ilam Park is a 158-acre country park situated in Ilam, on both banks of the River Manifold, owned and managed by the National Trust. The estate includes the remains of Ilam Hall, built in the 1820s.  Nearby, within the village, a Saxon church stands which houses the shrine of a Mercian king.  Most significant is the beautiful landscape, an area of outstanding natural beauty and a picturesque landscape of note.

It is the church that forms the basis and design for David Bethell’s site specific largescale work which functions as a camera obscura. Visitors engaged and experienced the surroundings as an inverted landscape from within the installation and were encouraged to engage with the landscape in new and interactive ways.

Writer Selina Oakes was commissioned to create a new piece of writing on the commission David Bethell Inverted Landscapes writing by Selina Oakes

Artist David Bethell has continued to work with the rural landscape and has shown his work nationally including at Home, Manchester and at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.