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!

Time To Move On

My intense 2-year MFA course at Bath Spa Uni has now come to a successful end.  I threw myself into it mind and body, so the past few weeks have been a strange time of re-adjustment and reorganising, sadness, but also hope for exciting work ahead.  Time to move on.  Below are some images of the 3 works I presented for the final module and MA Show - thanks to John Taylor for some of these photographs. Through the MA, my practice has undergone a series of shifts; it has developed more integrity, an expansiveness, but also a paring down in approach.  I was happy with the results and delighted with my grade.

Some info about the pieces:

Inspired by reading ‘Planet of Slums’ (Mike Davis) - rich/poor divide, precarious lives, cruelty to humans/animals; watching ‘Our Daily Bread’ (Nikolaus Geyrhalter) – factory farming; ‘A Plastic Ocean’, and grief over the death of my dog, my response is a form of suturing.

Concerned with waste, ‘Glut’ is a set of wrapped, woven and stitched tentacular entrails, viscous hybrids transformed, suturing trash into treasure, both seductive and disgusting. The materials (especially personal items) speak of past lives, loss, textiles, craft. In contrast, the organic forms symbolise death, violence, but also vulnerability and renewal - the duality of horror and tenderness. ‘Accretion’ is an accumulation of many parts. Its evolution, the labour-intensive process of its making is an important element in the work. It is an abject object.  It has connotations of the intestine, a metaphor for waste, excess and recycling, and other tentacular forms.  Like pulling hair out of a plug, it is repulsive, ambiguous.

We are all of the earth; the earth is flesh and bone. ‘Of Bones’ demonstrates a relational play of human-made and organic materials. The juxtaposition of fragile, translucent parched ‘bones’ against metal and wood sets up dynamic tensions. Cast branches as limb-like forms are playful abstractions. It references Picasso’s Crucifixion series inspired by Matthias Grunewald. Christ’s tortured hand is interpreted from the cast of a found piece of gnarled wood. The work also references Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ series and Mark Dion’s trees. Regarding humanity, Christ’s words from the cross: ‘they know not what they do’ resonate.

Since re-entering the outside world I have been catching up on loose ends, establishing new connections, working on a commission, running workshops and other bits and bobs.  In a one-day workshop at Beckington First School (via SAW) working with tinies aged 4-9 years old, we made a whale, fish & other sea creatures. Every child in the school took part in making the sculptural artworks using recycled materials, especially plastic as an environmental project highlighting waste.  It was linked to the story of Jonah and the Whale to tie in with the school’s current theme Retell, Reused, Recycled.  After I fixed all the components together, the sculptures were installed in the school grounds for permanent display.

One morning I taught acrylic painting to a group of 17 U3A adults.  They all produced lovely still life paintings - a few illustrated below.

I was commissioned to make a set of copper bird feeders for Horatio’s Garden, Stoke Mandeville. Some commissions are more interesting than others. This one has increased my understanding of copper and the process of annealing.  I love watching the colours change through application of heat. Copper expands when hammered into a sunken mould. For moulds I used found steel objects and carved a couple in wood, thanks to Nick Weaver. Quite a long process but a fascinating transformation.

I am using these copper processes for a range of shop Christmas decorations (Fosse Beads and Friends, Frome).   Next commission is to make a 1 metre Great Crested Newt for Carymoor Environmental Centre using recycled materials.  It has a lovely backstory, which I will relate in another blog soon.

Yesterday I sold a large sculpture made a few years ago to a lovely couple, who I know will give him a great home. ‘Man Models Himself On Earth, Earth On Heaven’ (my longest title to date) will be added to as a site-specific residency, returning to my original plans for him to be more densely woven.

I occasionally invigilate at Hauser & Wirth Somerset.  I am elated that Berlinde de Bruyckere is now showing there with her Stages & Tales exhibition.   During my MA I researched her work, which became a key influence to my practice.  Her new body of work is more abstract: in her powerful series Courtyard Tales, she uses layers of decomposed, torn blankets as a metaphor for bodies, intimacy, decay, shelter, vulnerability, lust and war.  There is a duality of love and suffering.  I burnt my thumb badly with a glue gun the other day, and the scarred fleshy wound reminds me of details in her work.  It was fantastic to have the opportunity to speak to Berlinde at the opening.

There are crossovers between Berlinde de Bruyckere’s work and Takesada Matsutani’s adjoining exhibition ‘A Drop in Time’. It has been mesmerising to watch the stages of transformation since Matsutani performed the piercing of the bag of ink suspended over a wooden ball.  Over time, single droplets fell repeatedly onto the ball causing remarkable splatters of ink, making an eclipse, flowing to the edges in its own way.  The piece has developed over time. I find his work very beautiful.  I love the simple gesture, the aspect of time and timelessness, the gestural hand-made labour-intensive process with graphite pencil marks on paper, canvas and wood.  Like de Bruyckere, the work refers to the ‘endless cycle of life and death’.

I am pleased to now be a small part of the education team at the Holburne Museum, Bath. Next month I will be running a Life Drawing session for A’ Level students linked to the ‘Rodin: re-thinking the fragment’ exhibition.  It may well re-ignite my own life drawing passion from years ago.

I am allowing myself some head space before properly starting new artwork.  Meanwhile this website is being changed (watch this space).

Next exhibition coming soon ‘Line and point’, will be at Centrespace Gallery, Bristol (25 Oct-1 Nov). If you didn’t get to the MA Show, this exhibition features work by a group of MA alumni and final year postgraduate fine artists, including me.  Contemporary practices across installation, drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, objects and digital work is tiered with connections relating to the theme ‘line and point’.  My piece ‘Glut’ will be on show: Line and Point, Centrespace Gallery, 6 Leonard Lane, Bristol BS1 1EA.  It runs from Saturday 27th October - Wednesday 31st October, open daily 11am - 6pm.  Preview, Friday 26th October, 6pm - 9pm – all welcome!  http://www.centrespacegallery.com

Hope you can come along!

PRESS 2016

Frome Standard, March '16 - Local Artists' work focal pieces/Chelsea Flower Show story Frome Times, March '16 - Chelsea Flower Show commission

Fine Times Recorder, March '16 - Bishop unveiling at Bishops Palace

Wells Journal, March '16 - New sculpture unveiled at Bishops Palace

The Visitor Magazine, May '16 - Somerset artists net Chelsea Flower Show commission

BBC Get Creative Day, April '16 - workshops at Black Swan Arts

Bruton Town website - Chelsea Flower Show commission

The Fine Times Recorder - Chelsea Flower Show commission

Bishop commission - Country Gardener

Mendip Times, May '16 - Bishop and Chelsea

Gardens Illustrated, May '16 - Chelsea

Sunday Telegraph, 29 May '16 - Chelsea canopy

Viking Cruises brochure for Chelsea Garden, May '16

Somerset Live - Chelsea artists return

Frustrated Gardener blog - Chelsea Mekong Garden

Garden Design Journal - Chelsea

Country Life, Collectors' Issue, 1 June '16

Chelsea Fringe website - Hidden Garden Art Show

Frome Standard, 9 June '16

Ham and High - Hidden Garden Art Show

The Artiscape - Gold and Best Artisan Garden Awards for Somerset Artists

The Visitor Magazine, June '16 - Gold and Best Artisan Garden Awards at Chelsea Flower Show for Somerset Artists

Bruton Town website, June '16 -  Secret Swans Art Trail

SculptSite.com, June '16 - Secret Swans Art Trail Adds Mystery to Frome Festival

Frome Festival, July '16 - Secret Swans Success Story

Somerset Cool Blog, July '16 - 30 Years of Art - Black Swan Arts, Frome

Frome Standard, July '16 - Secret Swans

Frome Times, August '16 - Black Swan - Beacon for the Arts

Salisbury Journal, Aug '16 - step in stone tours to Salisbury Art Centre

Bishop Unveiling and Chelsea Flower Show

My steel Bishop was unveiled on 7th April by Bishop Ruth of Taunton at Bishop's Palace & Gardens.  The sculpture represents the local myth about the medieval Bishop Jocelyn of Wells, Somerset who slew the Dragon of Worminster, saving the people of Dinder from further ravaging of their children and stock. He is looking up at the huge Dragon (to be made later), grasping his crozier and sword, in the stance of imminent attack. I was originally asked by Head Gardener James Cross to create a topiary structure - hence the style - but as it evolved it was decided the Bishop would remain purely a sculpture. He is, in effect, like a 3d linear sketch. I drew a friend, Nick Weaver, posed in the Bishop of Taunton’s cope, to help me obtain the right stance and movement of drapes. A vicar at Wells Cathedral also kindly posed briefly for me in his robes in Dragon-slaying stance, which amused him! As the Bishop is a 'man of cloth', I tried to devise ways of not being too anatomically figurative, so that the inner structure only hints at his body, and that the drapes of his robes, cope, cross and mitre are the focus.

His ethereal appearance means visitors may need to look twice when they come across him!

Below are a few pics.  To see how the work developed please visit my Art Facebook Page

I am now fully focused on finishing my canopy/net for Chelsea Flower Show's 'Viking Cruises' artisan garden.  It took me a month and a half just to weave the net (in 25 sections) by hand with fine copper wires; it's been more fun collecting materials and building up the coloured layers.  Fish skeletons and feathers are some of the interesting additions!  A few pics below show how it's going so far.