Shaping Up

It’s been a lucky month - full of energy and exciting breakthroughs!

I am thrilled that Sack has been shortlisted for the Cass Art Prize 2025! The prize aims to champion contemporary art from across UK and Republic of Ireland with prizes for different categories. The exhibition will be hosted at Copeland Gallery, Unit 9, Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Rd, London SE15 3SN, Fri 24 Oct – Sat 1 Nov. Do visit if you can!

Sack is made from recycled, found or donated waste materials including jute, fabric (some hand dyed with homemade botanical inks), twine, plastic, polystyrene, rope, wood, wire, mainly sourced from wastelands, riversides, and coastlines. Part of my stilt structure series, it was inspired by stilt dwellings which exist on edges of safety around the world; hybrids implying precarity, adaptability and resilience. It was originally created during my PADA residency last year, located in an old jute warehouse.

Huge thanks to Cass Art and the panel of judges David Mach, Ishbel Myerscough, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Pallas Citroen, Ryan Lanji, Tim Allen.

I’m also over the moon to have been selected for Wells Art Contemporary Site-Specific Installations 2025! There will be a range of installations created for the interior and grounds of Wells Cathedral, responding directly to this unique space. It will be such an honour to place my work in The Chapter House, my favourite space in the Cathedral. It is the place where the governing body of the Cathedral meet - connect - to discuss, decide, find the right way forward.

This year there’s a theme: ‘Flowing Light’, taken from 13th century mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg’s writings about her relationship with God. Flowing light symbolises enlightenment, interconnectedness, the divine. Artists are invited to respond to this. I’m working flat out making my proposed installation Threads of LIght. (progress pics below - more on this later) The exhibition will be at Wells Cathedral from Wednesday 8 Oct - Sat 1 Nov. Hope to see you there!

Massive thanks to judges Laura Moffatt and Cathy de Monchaux for selecting my work, I’m deeply grateful.

Please join us for the Private View of One Island - Many Visions, Saturday 6 September, 6-9pm.

One Island - Many Visions is a collaborative project featuring the work of 27 artists, a partnership with members of the Royal Society of Sculptors and Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust.

Sculptures and installations will be located within Tout Quarry Sculpture Park & Nature Reserve and Drill Hall Gallery. Maps available at both locations. The artworks comprise a broad range of responses, media and materials, reflecting diverse contemporary and conceptual approaches to the natural environment.

My site-responsive piece Riot is inspired by Maritime Sunburst Lichen (Xanthoria Parietina), ancient life forms of fungi, algae, and cyanobacteria in symbiosis. Sensitive to atmospheric pollution, signifying pure air, lichen are also resilient and play a vital role in nutrient cycling. Lichen are the slowest growing of all known organisms. The nature of my making is slow too, appropriately. It’s taken me 8 months - in between other work - to make Riot! Threads, hand-stitched, weave together a layered bricolage of line, texture, colour, entanglements. Riot is an artivist piece, a form of soft rebellion. It spotlights our wasteful consumerist society, and negligent treatment of our ocean.

Riot (part II), found, recycled & donated materials: beach waste (ghost netting, rope, hard hats, fishing floats), wire, textiles (some home-dyed with natural pigments), wool, twine, plastic, sponge, polyester, natural debris, sandbags. Some donated by Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project

Made in 2 parts, Riot is also wearable. There will be a transient performance during the show, in which the human body activates the work. I’ll be performing with Riot in collaboration with Melanie Thompson at Tout Quarry Sculpture Park & Nature Reserve (Sun 14 Sept, 2-3pm, location: what3words: ///deliver.press.tilts).

Rehearsal with Melanie Thompson at Zig Zag, Glastonbury

There will be a range of other events, including a Symposium (27/28 Sept). I’ll be leading an Eco Sculpture Workshop (Fri 10 Oct 2-4.30pm, Drill Hall). Book: fionacampbell-art@sky.com. I’ll also be taking part in an Artists-in-Conversation, Sun 19 Oct 2pm with Ros Burgin, Nicola Turner, Rebecca Newnham, Kate Parson & Hannah Sofaer, chaired by Freeny Yianni (Close Ltd). Save the dates!

Thanks to Kate Parsons who has worked so hard leading the project alongside a Steering Group (Dallas Collins, Anna Gillespie, Rebecca Newnham and me), and to PSQT for hosting. Thanks to The Arts Society Wessex Area for funding my workshop, and contributing to our events and catalogue. See @oneislandmanyvisions for details.

Tufted Duck is floating in Cranmore village pond (BA4 4QJ, Somerset) until 30 August. Made from recycled and found materials including wire, bottle tops, buttons, beads, lifebuoy ring. I created it for the Eco-Arts Festival Trail, themed Water Life. I worked on it with people of all ages and abilities, including Cranmore residents. The Trail takes place around Shepton Mallet, Cranmore and Doulting, Somerset. Maps from Strode Arms Pub, Station Cafe, Cranmore, One Craft Gallery, and Shepton & Wells libraries.

Photo by Roger Spear

I led a joyful one-day Sculpture workshop ‘Drawing in Space with 3d Materials’ at The Sherborne as a wider offering for the exhibition Recurring Intricacies.

My upcoming courses via Frome Community Education begin in September: Drawing and Creative Sketchbooking. Book soon if interested.

New product in my shop:: a range of copper napkin rings for sale - do take a look.

Fund raiser: I’m extremely thankful to those who’ve donated to my fund-raiser so far: Caroline Driscoll, Hanne Castein, Angela Morley, Claire Alves, Julia Middleton. The fund-raiser (running ‘til the end of August) is to help finance the build of a shed for artwork/storage (see progress pics below - thanks to Roger Spear for all his work on this so far), to work with Melanie Thompson on the Riot collaboration, and film of the performance. If you can help please get in touch. All donors will be acknowledged in my next blog/newsletter and receive a giveaway pack of my greetings cards.

Donate

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Summer Sale and Support

Photo by Jason Bryant

I am fundraising to help pay for 3 events, amounting to £2000. The funds will enable me to:

• build a new shed for art storage, easing workspace in my studio

• support the development of Riot into a performance, by working in collaboration with Melanie Thompson towards a transient happening at Tout Quarry during One Island - Many Visions.

• film documentation of the performance by Andy Ralston.

Donate

The latter two will be part of a new body of work which I plan to show in a future solo. You will be invited to visit all 3! Your patronage will be hugely appreciated and acknowledged. Just a donation of £10 can help me reach my goal!

Riot is a site-responsive intervention at Tout Quarry for @oneislandmanyvisions, and also wearable sculpture. Inspired by Maritime Sunburst Lichen growing on the rocks at Tout Quarry. Created from recycled materials including ocean waste & textiles (some home-dyed with natural pigments), Riot is a reflection on ‘troubled beauty’, Arts Precario, beauty tinged with sadness. Currently working on Riot (part II). Thanks to all who have donated materials including Weymouth and Portland Litter Marine Project, Jane Fox, Caroline James, Victoria Grinter, Marilyn Keemar, Linda Staines, Nigel Evans, Vanessa Lloyd-Jones, Gill Sakakini.

Part of my fund-raising is a SUMMER SALE of work. I’m offering a discount on drawings in my online shop.

Large Moth

COURSES

I recently ran an Eco Sculpture course via Frome Community Education, see below results

New courses start in the Autumn: Please visit these links: Drawing & Creative Sketchbooking 

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Drawing in Space with 3-d Materials: The Sherborne, Tuesday 5 August, 10.30-4.30pm with luchbreak.

TUFTED DUCK

I invited the community to take part in creating a Tufted Duck sculpture at Collett Park Day, Shepton Mallet, for an Eco-Arts Festival Trail ’25. Delighted with lots of engagement. Themed ‘Flock, the trail is about water life and takes place in Shepton Mallet, Cranmore & Doulting during the summer holidays. Look out for sculptures made from re-purposed materials & pick up a trail map from the Art Bank, library, One-Craft  Gallery, Shepton Mallet, or Station Cafe, Cranmore.

Article of interest:

Donald Trump’s Cultural Revolution

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As Old as the Hills

Collett Park Day drop-in workshop, As Old as the Hills. Making & embedding paper with recycled/found river & sea debris. Community work will form part of our final exhibition. Photo: Kirsten Madeira-Revell & me, by Barbara Voules

As Old as the Hills is a community art project I’m co-curating with Jan Ollis. Rooted in heritage and environment, it culminates in an immersive contemporary art exhibition & events in the iconic Bauhaus building (Zig Zag), Glastonbury for Somerset Art Weeks Festival (21 Sept-6 Oct).

The project looks at climate change, floods, water pollution, and the ancient layered history of Mendip & Somerset Levels – interdependent landscapes. The exhibition takes place on the top floor of a disused space, once Morlands leather factory. I’m interested in placing art in unusual spaces that bring their own atmosphere. The Zig Zag is unique; light floods in through long banks of windows which span both lengths of the building. Thrilled to be collaborating with a great selection of artists, working in a range of disciplines from large-scale sculptural installations and textiles to photography and performance: Madi Acharya Baskerville , Nikki Allford, Fiona Campbell, Duncan Cameron, David Kefford, Di Milstein, Penelope O’Gara, Catriona Robertson, Jan Ollis, Richard Tomlinson.

Sadly we didn’t get ACE funding, but we’re very grateful to those who have supported us. Funders include The Arts Society, Gane Trust, Shepton Mallet Town Council, individual donations and a great deal of in-kind.

A range of workshops are open to the public. Jan and I had a great time running a free drop-in workshop at Collett Park Day on 8 June (pics above/below). We’ll be running more workshops in local schools. There are plenty of workshops to join, including a fabulous day at Avalon Marshes: ‘Memory, Mud, Mind’: Walk, Talk, Workshop, Sat 6 July, 10am-4pm, Glastonbury BA6 9TT.  Info & book here.

Photo credits (above): 1, 11 Barbara Voules; 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 Richard Tomlinson; 4 Jan Ollis

Work in Progress

I’m making a series of stilt structures, precarious hybrid forms around the notion of resilience, adaptation, making do. The tripod sculptures are assemblages of recycled & found mixed media, layered, stitched and patched together, advocating reuse, care and repair in the context of global consumerism and waste. They’ll be showcased in As Old as the Hills.

Stilt houses, built to avoid floods, exist on the edges of safety in slums around the world . People in Landes used to move about on stilts in boggy ground. Somali nomads transport their homes/belongings - elaborate overladen bundles - on camels (symbols of adaptability, endurance, trade routes). Growing up in Kenya, I have vivid memories of African women bent over with heavy loads piled high on their backs. My work also refers to the ancient timber Sweet Track found in Avalon marshes, Somerset, dating 3800BC. These stilt structures are a means of survival in adversity, and suggest treading the earth gently. Have always been fascinated by Dali’s elephants.

Stilt Structure II, found, recycled & waste materials: wood branches, coir, copper wire, handmade naturally dyed fabric, leather, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, sisal, wool, thread, nylon tights

Stilt Structure III: maquette (above), found, recycled & waste materials: wood, steel, wire, paper, cardboard, teabags, bark, plant debris, sisal

Stilt Structure III: collage (below), found, recycled & waste materials: cardboard, paper, wood, wire, leaves, leather, plastic, bark, plant debris

Stilt Structure III (far below), work in progress, found, recycled & waste materials: wood, steel, wire, paper, cardboard, fabric, jute, bark…

With limited studio space, working large-scale has its problems. I utilise other spaces including my garden, but with such poor weather this summer in UK, I haven’t been able to work outside much. Luckily I’ve had access to a neighbour’s garage, so my latest piece is developing there.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Delighted my work has been selected for the Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show, curated by David McAlmont. The exhibition will be held at Dora House, 108 Old Brompton Rd, South Kensington, London
SW7 3RA; 22 July-21 Sept. PV Sat 20 July, 11am-2pm.

I’ll be installing work in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall soon for Solastalgia, an exhibition curated by Summer Auty, It runs 1-14 July. 

I’ll be showing 2 drawings in Landscape (Re)View) at The Wall, Musgrove Hospital, 2 July-29 Oct, & small works at Brewhouse, Taunton in September - part of Somerset Reacquainted.

I have 3 pieces on show in The Piano Shop Bath, 1&2 Canton Place BA1 6AA. Nest, String Theory, & Starfish were created for Played and Remade using discarded piano parts. Available for sale & online.

I have some handmade books on exhibition at Create@#8, 8 Town St, Shepton Mallet, as part of Art Book Shepton. Open 14-23 June (Fri-Sun). I’ll be there on Sun 16th if you want to pop in.

1 Kenyan Tree Rubbings, graphite, paper: I made the tree rubbings in Kenya on an ACE-funded DYCP trip in ‘22. The book is special to me as it documents an important time revisiting my Kenyan roots, and seeing my Dad for the last time.

2. Fungi, paper

For more about my DYCP year see @fiona_campbell_dycp and my film.

I’m raising funds to go on a trip to Vietnam at the end of the year. Please consider purchasing something from my shop. I’ve added an Online Sculpture Course, which has no time limit (self-directed) - great value!

New Work in Progress

Stilt Structure II (work in progress), found, recycled & waste materials: wood branches, coir, copper wire, handmade naturally dyed & recycled fabric, leather, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, sisal, wool, thread, nylon tights

I’ve been creating hybrid forms around the notion of resilience, adaptation, making do. These precarious, awkward sculptural assemblages incorporate hand-stitched and woven textiles, which carry histories of land, past lives, labour, craft, trade routes, consumerism and waste. Labour-intensive processes relate to care and repair.

Grateful to Roger Spear for the use of his wood workshop and technical assistance.

As Old as the Hills

I’m co-curating a project As Old as the Hills, rooted in heritage and environment, highlighting issues of sustainability. It culminates in a contemporary art exhibition plus events for SAW Festival in the Bauhaus building, Glastonbury. 10 artists will create site-responsive work, some with the community, developing collaborative art: installation, sculpture, textiles, film, photography, performance. Our artworks will respond to place, deep time, climate change: floods, water pollution, and precarity of the peat bogs. The project will be approached as a collective conversation. We want to celebrate biodiversity in the levels & marshes, re-framing the notion ‘as old as the hills’ as forward-thinking rather than anti-progressive.

Upcoming Drop-in Workshop at Collett Park Day, Shepton Mallet, 8 June, with me & Jan Ollis making simple paper casts and embedding river & sea debris. All day; all welcome! Work made will be part of the final As Old as the Hills exhibition.

Awaiting news on our ACE project grant application; work + events will be scaled according to funds. Visit @as.old.as.the.hills for more about the project and my Artist Instagram Takeover this week.

Played and Remade (launched this week)

Thrilled to be part of a new collaborative art & music project with The Piano Shop Bath. Discarded piano parts have been upcycled and transformed into artworks. My 3 pieces Nest, String Theory, & Starfish are for sale. All artworks are available to view online and in The Piano Shop Bath, 1&2 Canton Place BA1 6AA. See article in The Guardian and visit @playedandremade for more info.

Nest, for Played and Remade

Elysia

In April I collaborated with dance artist Vanessa Grasse on her Elysia R&D project in a residency at Create@#8, Shepton Mallet for a week. We collected materials on walks, hand dyed natural recycled fabric remnants with homemade botanical inks, and made eco sculptural wearable artworks. The work relates to hybridity, interconnection between the human and non-human world. The name’s inspired by Elysia chlorotica, a sea slug with plant-like qualities - living testament to hybridity and symbiosis.

It was fascinating creating sculptural textiles to move with the body, and see elements in action.  We shared work in progress on our last day, encouraged people to make a small part, and were treated to a performance - those watching were transfixed. See more in my previous blog.

Elysia, work in progress

Upcoming

Solastalgia Exhibition, Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, 1-14 July. This follows an excellent publication about Environmental art, edited by Summer Auty.  I’ll be showing Glut and Pyre.

Site visits for future projects

Tout Quarry, Portland; Avalon Marshes; Bridies Mount; Mendip Hills

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Elysia, collaboration with Dance Artist Vanessa Grasse

I’ve spent the past few days working with Dance artist/Choreographer Vanessa Grasse. I was asked to mentor and collaborate with Vanessa on her R&D Project Elysia, to explore the creation of wearable sculptures made from natural and recycled materials.

Based in Leeds, Vanessa has been staying with me in rural Somerset. We’ve been collecting natural materials on walks, hand colouring natural fabric remnants with homemade botanical dyes, exchanging ideas around contemporary sculpture and dance, slime mould and lichen, and working daily at our residency in a large empty shop space Create@#8, Shepton Mallet. The project name is inspired by the Elysia chlorotica, a sea slug with plant-like qualities - a living testament to hybridity and symbiosis. The themes are very much up my street.  See Vanessa’s newsletter here.

It’s been an incredibly refreshing and energising experience, working across disciplines, learning new ways of thinking, approaching art in motion - something I’d like to explore further.  We’ve had fun playing with materials, colours, cavities, lines and blobs, improvising with assemblages around the body in movement, hand-stitching…

We’ll be sharing the work in progress on our last day - Thursday 11 April, 4-5pm. Please join us at Create@#8, 8 Town Street, Shepton Mallet. All welcome!

Elysia R&D project delves into the profound interconnection between humans and the non-human world. It blends outdoor choreography, ecological sculpture, and Land Art processes, towards the creation of a visceral, sculptural, and playful outdoor performance, where hybrid creatures, bodies, natural materials, and the landscape are in metamorphosis.

Humans are intricate ecosystems of a multiplicity of species. Awakening an awareness of our inherent hybridity, has the capacity to alter how we perceive our place in the world and our connection with our ecosystems.

The creative research includes exchanges with academic researchers; sculptors, costume makers and land artists. Elysia is supported by Arts Council England, University of Leeds; Yorkshire Dance, Create@#8.

New Courses:

Vanessa and I met when she did my Online Sculpture Course earlier this year. If you’re interested in doing an art course with me, I’ll be running some new adult Love 2 Learn art courses at Bath College from 17 April:

Sculpture: (Wed am and/or pm)

https://www.bathcollege.ac.uk/course/view/3109/introduction-to-sculpture-23-24

Drawing and Painting (Wed or Thurs)

https://www.bathcollege.ac.uk/course/view/3069/drawing-and-painting-23-24

Please book asap as spaces are limited!