Marleigh Belsley is interested in the impact of digital technology on how we understand ourselves, each other, and our environment.
Her work explores what - on a microscopic level - happens through the process of sound and image capture, and how this can begin to reveal the complexly intertwined systems of the climate crisis and digital technology.
Working across digital and analogue video, photography, and sound, she investigates each medium's distinct temporal and material presence. To make palpable the distance between the physical and its representation, she elongates lens-based processes to the point where the medium begins to reveal itself to the viewer.
For example, she hand processes 16mm film with developer she makes out of non-toxic, sustainable materials. She works in direct animation - hand painting 16mm film frame by frame, as well as “pickles” her film over time. In the digital realm, she experiments with a wide range of recording devices - from high quality to lo-fi - working across the various material “timestamps” each camera provides. Sonically, she works in methods including field recordings, electronic instruments, processing acoustic instruments, voice, synthesizers, and hand manipulating analogue tape.
Belsley considers how lens based work offers the opportunity to slow down, look closely, and tune in to our environment while offering an opportunity to critically reflect on our everyday consumption of digital media.
Marleigh Belsley (b. Chicago, IL 2001) is an artist based between New York, NY and London, UK. She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art (2025). She earned her BA in Studio Art and Music at Harvard (Summa Cum Laude, 2024) and studied Music Technology at Berklee College of Music (2024). Belsley has photographed for organizations such as the New York Times and the Harvard Film Archive. She has exhibited at Fridman Gallery, Art Jakarta, London Design Festival, Cubitt Gallery, Filet Space, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and Maven Art House. She has been awarded The John Knowles Paine fellowship from the Harvard Music Department and the Sydney M Williams Jr. Traveling Fellowship from the Harvard Visual Arts Department.
instagram: marleigh.belsley
email: mobelsley@gmail.com