Entanglements is a compelling body of new work by London-based artist Sara Berman, made in response to Michael Grandage’s acclaimed production of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd. Marking a new kind of artistic exchange for Glyndebourne, Berman is the first visual artist to be granted unprecedented access to the production’s original costumes and props. The exhibition presents over thirty drawings, text pieces and painting, offering an immersive exploration of the tensions between power, rigour and humanity that underpin the opera. Berman (b.1975, UK) is best known for her arresting figurative works that engage with the semiotics of dress. Her practice is meticulous and exacting, grounded in questions of how identities, both real and imagined, are performed, constructed, constrained and clothed. Berman’s dialogue with Billy Budd was led through costumes from the production, which she wore and documented in her studio before using as reference material for the final drawings and paintings. The works developed iteratively, as she moved between embodiment and observation towards a more subjective viewpoint, merging elements of self-portraiture with fictional characterisations drawn from the opera’s libretto.

Berman collapses Britten’s powerful figures into a series of cuffs, buttons and sleeves. Captain Vere’s shirt in Glass plays with ideas of structure and fluidity; the precise folds of fabric and luminous milky white palette a reminder that his garments are new and clean. In the powerful and large-scale painting, Entangled, Berman delights in the creases, gathers and shadows of Billy’s shirt. Stripped of his workwear jacket, the salt-stiffened sleeves and powder-blue pinstripes define the composition: ‘There is an honesty about the fabric choices and cuts,’ says Berman, ‘they refer not just to the physical tasks that need to be done on the boat, but the class divides. Status is reflected through the tailoring.’

The works in Entanglements have emerged from a deeply personal place. In the autumn of 2025, Berman found herself housebound after major surgery. The enforced isolation shaped her connection to the opera: ‘My house became my ship and my studio. I related to Billy – the feeling of being taken from one world and placed in another.’ Initially unable to draw or hold a paintbrush, she worked with a rubber stamp set, imprinting words from the libretto onto fabric remnants. The text pieces shown here are the first to enter her practice. As Berman recovered, her mark-making became more assertive – dense crosshatching, vigorous charcoal lines and layers of oil paint with rabbit skin glue applied directly onto herringbone linen. Each of her paintings glow, fluorescing with spots of green, pink and orange that emerge from the harlequin patterned underpainting.

The motif of rope appears throughout this exhibition in both monumental and fragmentary forms, referencing the production’s set design by Christopher Oram. ‘Rigour has been a guiding word. There are rules on the ship, and knots are rules-based. The opera is about trying to keep safe and trying to break free.’ Berman’s exquisite painting, Bound, attests to this. Sensual gold brushstrokes reveal the magnified detail of restrained hands; beauty and brutality sit in uneasy proximity here.

‘Billy Budd is such a prescient opera. It’s uncompromising and serious. There is this idea of being a good man, of serving one’s God and King – a sense of patriotism – but this is often at odds with basic humanity. At the same time, the opera is tender, filled with regret and moral reflection. There is a great deal we can still learn from it.’ Like Britten’s opera, Berman’s works draw us into a complex and layered world; captivating and entangling us.