Offenders

In April I will be working in a residency at the Cells, Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, culminating in an exhibition in May.  I’ll be using the residency as an opportunity to test new ideas, responding to the unique site.  ‘Offenders’ will confront uncomfortable topics related to environmental exploitation using mainly recycled and found materials.  

Residency: 1-30 April, Exhibition: 1-31 May

Launch: 9 May, 6-7.30pm - all welcome! 

Open Mon-Fri 10am–4pm; Sat 10am-2pm

During the Easter holiday I’ll be running a 3d wire workshop, Tues 9 April, 10am-1pm, ages 6+ (£15 per adult+child; additional children £8 each; includes materials & drink),  Town Hall Arts, Market Street, Trowbridge BA14 8EQ. Book: www.townhallarts.co.uk

Talks and Workshops coming soon

A couple of events I’m involved in - one tomorrow, Wed 27 Feb, do please join me if you’re free and in the Bath area:

Bath Spa Uni MA Curatorial Practice team presents their next salon PALAVR this coming Wednesday, February 27th.

‘Focusing on reconnecting people with their environment using stories, art and the humanities, we are excited to welcome special guests Owain Jones (Professor of Environmental Humanities BSU), Fiona Campbell (Fine Artist), and Priyanka Sutaria (MA Creative Writing, Poetry Performance).

From guests talks to performances, come join us and enjoy this intimate, open and free gathering for curators, artists, writers, designers and anyone who is interested in cultivating dialogue and collaborating with others within the various creative fields!’

And a workshop aimed at Primary School Teachers for creative maths!

Juggling

It’s a common phenomenon for artists to be adept jugglers, managing multiple balls in the air to survive. A book I’m reading ‘The Artist as Cultural Producer’ by Sharon Louden highlights 40 artists who do it very well. It’s been a dizzy time juggling different strands of my practice and feeling excited by opportunities that have come my way.

Carymoor - newt sculpture

I installed my Great Crested Newt sculpture in his new home at Carymoor Environmental Trust. Made from recycled and found materials, he sits on a grassy tussock by an old bomb incineration tank (now pond - home to great crested newts). Here he can oversee his live newt friends who hide underneath the sheet of corrugated steel.

The sculpture was commissioned as a memorial to the founder of the environmental centre Hamish Craig. He loved great crested newts and it was finding these on the old landfill site that sparked the beginnings of Carymoor - now a wonderful wildlife and education centre built over a site full of waste.

MA graduation ceremony

Earlier this month I officially graduated with an MA in Fine Art at a grand ceremony in the awesome Assembly Rooms, Bath, celebrating with fellow graduates. It was a treat to meet our chancellor Jeremy Irons and I was honoured to be invited to give the valediction speech on behalf of our cohort. I managed to do this without tripping up. It was a lovely sunny day for photos - happy memories!

Gilbert Bayes Award sessions

Since winning a Gilbert Bayes award from the Royal Society of Sculptors, I’ve been going to London for monthly development sessions. The last with Shelley James focused on writing about our work. The year ends with a group exhibition in London, which tours to Grizedale Arts afterwards - exciting! I try to maximise on my London day trips by visiting exhibitions or museums. I saw Anni Albers at Tate Modern and more recently strolled through the V&A materials and techniques sections, which is mid-blowing.

Outdoor Arts

I have spent 2 weekends on an Outdoor Arts Development Course in Weymouth (delivered by Activate, b-side & Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival). It’s been fun and informative discussing potential art projects, learning tricks of the trade and thinking up new ideas. I’m now working on a pitch for a potential project which will involve collaboration, to present soon for the forthcoming event Dorset Moon this summer (Luke Jerram's international touring project Museum of the Moon). I’ve made a mini rickety ladder as a maquette. If I don’t get selected I will at least have a cute little ladder for posterity. I quite like making small objects despite normally making huge pieces. A bit finickety but addictive!

Incendiary

The wonderful multi-site exhibition ‘Incendiary’, featuring my work, came and went in full fiery mode. 25 artists responded to the firing up of industrial incinerators - a thought provoking exhibition curated by Patricia Brian. Lou Baker and I held an event ‘Join in the Conversation’ as part of it - we were delighted that we had a room packed with engaged people at Stroud Valleys Artspace, discussing our work in context with waste.

Glut at Incendiary. Photo by Mike Garlick

Cells residency

For my cells residency ‘Offenders’ at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge (April/May) I’ve made initial sketches, a collage and have started sourcing scrap steel for the skeletal form of a proposed huge Tongue sculpture. Working in the garden on sunny February days has been great. Confrontation with uncomfortable topics related to environmental exploitation will be a characteristic of this residency and exhibition. 

My work often involves sourcing, sorting and stripping wire. I’ve happily received donations of unwanted materials: pink clothes, towels, wire and fruit nets. Still looking for recycled wax, lead and copper wire. Please get in touch if you have any spare.

Forthcoming exhibitions

Other events coming up include a big group show ‘Re-formation’ at the Bishops Palace, Wells, Somerset for Summer 2019, organised by Heritage Courtyard Gallery. I have been developing ideas for this.

Fundraising for Prison Project - B-Wing

I’m currently writing an ACE application for a forthcoming project ‘B-Wing’, an arts event being held in the unique spaces of Shepton Mallet prison. Delivered alongside co-curator Luminara Star and several selected artists, we are making progress. B-Wing will involve 5 artists and 1 writer making site-responsive works leading to an exhibition and performances in the B-Wing section of Shepton Mallet Prison during Somerset Art Weeks Festival ’19. The project promises to be quite special and will be a nice follow on from my Cells residency work. We are looking for funds to engage the local Shepton community, schools and various other groups in the area and from afar. More news to follow.

Copper bowls

I have made a series of little copper bowls for Fosse Beads and Friends, Black Swan Arts, Frome. Each one is annealed and hand beaten.

Workshops

I had fun with tinies (Yrs 1 & 2) at Trinity First School, Frome the other day. Around 120 children made sea creatures in a day using recycled plastic and other found/discarded materials.

I am running a few workshops over the next few months with places available. The next is a 3d wire workshop, Tues 9 April, 10am-1pm, ages 6+; £15 per adult+child; additional children £8 each; includes materials & drink. Town Hall Arts, Market Street, Trowbridge BA14 8EQ. Book: www.townhallarts.co.uk

If you’re interested in more, please visit this link.

Ready Steady Go

Welcome to my new website - it’s had a major makeover, thanks to Dave Meehan!

After an amazing Christmas holiday in Kenya visiting family and canoodling with baby orphaned elephants, I feel refreshed. This January has, naturally, been a month of beginnings. Having pulled together my reserves I’ve begun to take on the wealth of opportunities that have come my way.  I managed to sell a few pieces of work and almost finished a sculpture commission for Carymoor Environmental Trust. It represents a great crested newt using recycled components - deadline end of the month.

In between, I’ve attended the first inspiring weekend session of an Outdoor Arts Development Course, delivered by Arts by the Sea, Activate Performing Arts, B-side and Outdoor Arts UK. It was great to meet other art practitioners working in different disciplines. Most exciting is the fact that I was selected for a Gilbert Bayes Award by the Royal Society of Sculptors, and have been to the first session in London to meet the other selected artists and learn about photographing sculpture from Anne Purkiss. I am so impressed by the strength of work in the group and look forward to exhibiting with them at the end of the year.

In February I am taking part in a multi-site, multi-disciplinary group exhibition ‘Incendiary’, curated by Patricia Brien.   It spans one week, and is packed with all sorts of exciting happenings.   My work ‘Glut’, concerning waste, will feature in the show at Stroud Valley Artspace (SVA), Stroud, 6th - 10th Feb.  Lou Baker and I will be inviting the public to ‘Join in the Conversation’ at SVA - a performative discussion about our work on Saturday 9 February, 11-12.  Come and join in! 

In my new role as part of the education team at the Holburne Museum, I ran a workshop with a mixed age group of schoolchildren. They created Double Portrait drawings linked to Hockney’s Mr & Mrs Clark and Percy, on show at the time. I’m scheduled to run some masterclasses at the Holburne later this year.

Next big project to focus on is a Cells Residency and forthcoming Solo at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge (April/May). I have some ideas to explore more fully in the studio, inspired by Berlinde de Bruyckere’s recent exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Palermo. I’m collecting various recycled materials; if you have any copper wire, wax or red wool, they would be much appreciated! This work will hopefully lead on to a collaborative art project I’m organising with Luminara Star in Shepton Prison later this year. We are about to start funding applications…

Things come in waves and I think I’m on a big one… Ready Steady… Go!

Looking back and forward

Looking back

For me, this past year has been exceptional - hugely important to my creative development, and personally.   High and low life-changing events have caused great shifts in my practice.

Focusing on the highs, I was delighted to have gained a distinction in my Masters in Fine Art, and thrilled to have recently been selected for a Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award.  I am greatly looking forward to the mentoring sessions and other development opportunities, and very happy to be a part of the RSS.

In the last few weeks I have been re-calibrating.  This has included sorting my studio space, planning new projects, running workshops, invigilating at Hauser & Wirth, starting a commission, visiting exhibitions in London, and making a giant octopus sculpture to lead the Shepton lantern parade (22 Dec) in collaboration with the Rubbish Art Project and local community, using colourful recycled plastic and wire.

Looking forward

I have some exciting exhibitions and projects lined up for next year:

Coming soon: my large piece ‘Glut’ will be shown at ‘Incendiary’, Landsdown Gallery/SVA, Stroud, 4-10 February 2019

I’ll also be working towards creating a site-specific body of work for a Residency and Solo Exhibition in the Cells, Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, April – May 2019.  The cells will provide an interesting test space in which to explore new ideas and processes.   Alongside this, I’ll be running workshops. The work will potentially lead to another project later in the year in Shepton Mallet prison – more info on this and other exhibitions later.

My website is currently having a major facelift - the new face should be ready in January.   Meanwhile, if you’d like to keep in touch, do join me on Instagram, Twitter and/or Facebook (links below):

Instagram fionacampbellartist

Twitter @fionasculpture

Facebook Fiona Campbell Art

All the best for a happy, peaceful, fulfilling Christmas and New Year!