New Film, Open Studio

Preparations for Somerset Open Studios. Photo: Seamus Nicolson

During the past few months, starting in the extraordinary silence of lockdown, I created a project LIfe in the Undergrowth.  I’m excited to have just completed a film as the final outcome (watch below).  In contrast to creating sculptural installations, I’m very much at the beginning of my crossing into digital technology and film-making. This film documents my isolation project and represents my first serious experiments with film-making.

Life in the Undergrowth, Digital Film - duration 10:33 mins. Audio: The Healing, Sergey Cheremisinov

Special thanks to Arts Council England/National Lottery Emergency Response fund, Richard Tomlinson (Ignite Somerset) and Jack Robson for their support.

Time Capsules, found objects: rusty nails, plastic, ceramic fragments, glass bottles, wood, chain, teeth, bones, plant debris, lead..

In advance of finishing the film, I created Time Capsules. The found objects are attached to each other with fine copper wire, like a net, suspended on a steel structure. They were excavated from the earth in my garden, each with a story - some known and others a mystery. During lockdown I dug up a lot of soil to make space for a studio bay. Some of the objects were buried quite deep... eg: giant molars from a large animal (horse, cow, sheep, rhinoceros..?!)  I borrowed the title from a phrase Cornelia Parker used to describe her work. The objects represent a moment in time, and time passing. Everything is connected. I love the shadows, which enhance the concept of time, memory, drawings, space.

For more about the project visit Instagram @life_intheundergrowth.

My Life in the Undergrowth project will be showing alongside some of my other work during Somerset Open Studios, opening next weekend (19 Sept - 4 Oct).  You’re welcome to visit by appointment.  This sunny start to autumn is perfect for a wander in the fresh air of my garden, and safe measures will be in place in the studio: Venue 70, West Cranmore, BA4 4RH. T: 07515537224 or E: fionacampbell-art@sky.com

Glimpses of work for Somerset Open Studios. Photos: Seamus Nicolson

To see other venues visit the SAW map

My work will also be showing at Somerset Rural Life Museum for Somerset Reacquainted. The exhibition involves 63 Somerset artists’ responses to lockdown, and brings together digital images, films, writings, objects and artworks.  Open 19 Sept - 21 Nov, Wed-Sat, 10-5 (pre-book, entrance fee applies).   There will be a series of podcasts.  I’ll be talking with other artists on Fri 2nd Oct, 6-7pm - hope you can join us.

I’ve been creating online resources and workshops for various creative projects, including SAW, Art UK and Make the Sunshine (image below). Links on my Workshops page.

Last month was taken up with running my 5 week Online Sculpture Course. I had an inspiring group of people from different parts of UK and Europe.  I was thrilled with their responses, energy, imagination resourcefulness and enthusiasm. The range of processes and different outcomes was amazing (see below)! If you’re interested in doing the course next year please email me your contact details and visit instagram #onlinesculpturecourse2020.

Images (above): work by participants: L to R clockwise: Gina Glover, Nicky Oram, Jenny Graham, Sarah Herfet

Images (above) L to R:  Nicki Davey, Louise Wood, Belinda Cooper, Nicky Oram, Diana Terry, Gina Glover, Sarah Herfet, Louise Wood, Trudy Smith, Karen Chard, Sonia Hulejczuk, Maxine Alexander

Quotes from participants:

My confidence has blossomed..  I've soooo enjoyed this course! Sarah Herfet

This course gave me the inspiration and… impetus to actually… create something.  It also gave me ideas that I wouldn’t otherwise have thought about. Nicki Davey

It was a joy to find books and ideas which connected my experience as a maker within the context of contemporary fine art. Diana Terry

It has been a joy making and sharing. Nicky Oram

Brilliantly delivered by Fiona, through her weekly blogs/zoom and Whats App presentations. Gina Glover 

It’s the last week of the Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition - if you’re in London don't miss it! The Exhibition has been guest curated by Robert and Nicky Wilson, founders of Jupiter Artland. I visited it in August and loved it! It’s a really vibrant, playful visceral show with a range of large and smaller intriguing works. My piece Accretion is a tentacular form - a metaphor for waste. The show is on until 18 September, Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm, Royal Society of Sculptors, 108 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3RA

It would be great to see you at my Open Studio.

Keep well :-)

Bumper Year

Glut at Gilbert Bayes Award 2019 Winners Exhibition, Royal Society of Sculptors, London

Thinking back over this year of highlights and achievements, I have a lot to be thankful for. 2019 has been a bumper year for me. Peppered with a whole range of community projects, workshops, new work, awards and exhibitions, it has been a turning point in my artistic career.

I was delighted to be invited to give a valedictory speech at my MFA graduation ceremony, Bath Spa Uni at the start of this year. Fuelled by the MFA, my work developed over the year. Ladders became a theme I explored - from an Outdoor Arts Development Course with Activate, B-Side & Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, to my Cells Residency and Solo exhibition at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, which in turn led to B-Wing - a project I co-curated with Luminara Star at Shepton Mallet Prison, as part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival. Gaining an Arts Council England/National Lottery project grant amongst other funding awards for B-Wing enabled me to reach new heights in scale and ambition. As part of B-Wing, I worked with various community groups and schools. I was interviewed on ITV South West by Ben McGrail, and loved meeting John McCarthy, who opened our Special Events Day. I worked with some wonderful inspiring artists including Lou Baker, whose work resonates with my own.

Winning a Gilbert Bayes Award with the Royal Society of Sculptors, of which I am now a member, was a real highlight. Development sessions over the year with a talented cohort has concluded with an exhibition currently on at RSS, London, touring to Grizedale Sculpture in March 2020.

Other exhibitions included Incendiary and Drawing on Dorset (touring show), both of which have mileage for future shows in 2020. Over the summer I made a large site-specific outdoor piece Crown of Thorns, shown at the entrance to Bishops Palace, Wells, in Re-Formation curated by Heritage Courtyard Gallery.

Crown of Thorns, Re-Formation at Bishops Palace. Photo by Ann Cook

Some of my workshops and community projects brought about new collaborations and friendships. Working with students at Bruton School for Girls led to a room-sized installation. I recently gave a talk to Bath University architecture students and will be participating in their final review. In the New Year I’m running a short sculpture course starting 8 January for 5 weeks on Wednesdays 6-8pm at the Cheese & Grain, Frome (book via Frome Community Education).

A few commissions and sales have kept the wolf from the door. I made a Great Crested Newt for Carymoor Environmental Trust, a series of swans necks for a celebrity’s winter garden (based on a lake theme, the swans’ bodies will be bushes), and sold Butterfly on Spiky Pod via Art Parks.

Swan necks awaiting collection for their new home in a celeb’s garden

My new website here on Squarespace, created this year, gives my work a fresh face.

I owe thanks to so many for their support: Royal Society of Sculptors, Patricia Brien, Town Hall Arts, Somerset Art Works, Arts Council England, Somerset Skills and Learning, Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Mallet Town Council, Heritage Courtyard Gallery, Shepton Mallet Prison/Jailhouse Tours, and Nick Weaver for his technical assistance. There are many more I could thank too…

Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you a positive start to 2020!

Spring in my Step

Hello to budding spring!  (I guess there is a spring in my step, though sometimes I feel like my feet are dragging - especially early mornings). A few updates about events you might be interested in.  My Art in Quarries project ‘step in stone’ is progressing well, having achieved a fantastic result through generous donors via crowdfunding on Ideas Tap and more recently a successful Arts Council England/National Lottery application. Heavily involved in bringing it to fruition, I am trying to reserve slices of time to make art. We have a new step in stone website, in addition to our facebook and twitter pages, so do please visit, follow and share. The best bit of the project is working with artists and other experts I admire.  I've been getting increasingly inspired by the history, geology and nature of the quarries, with new sources of information from scientists such as Gill Odolphie from Somerset Earth Science Centre and friend Nick Weaver.  I hope you’ll be able to visit the project this summer.

Part of the step in stone project will involve a young Sculpture Design Competition, kindly hosted by Black Swan Arts online from 1^st April - 18^th May. The winner will create their design as a full-scale sculpture to feature in our Trail, and all entries will be shown at the Black Swan, so any under 20 year old budding artists you know might like to have a go: http://www.blackswan.org.uk/sculpturedesign2015. Somerset Earth Science Centre (BA3 5JU) are hosting a Launch for us to explain more about this on Monday 23 March, 6-8pm. Come along if interested!

I feel honoured to have recently been elected onto the Black Swan board as a trustee and hope I can do the role justice in time. I love the Black Swan, it continues to provide excellent quality Arts in the South West, despite it’s huge crash in Council funding a few years ago. I hope it will gain further funding to be the best it can.

A radiator company, Sunflow Ltd, commissioned me to produce a 3-d sculptural piece for their new line of interesting Arty Radiators earlier this year. A challenging concept, I created an organic piece (no surprises there) involving copper piping and a woven nest on a layered backing of cut out metal, which we then sprayed (see design left and link above). These radiators are unusual - beautifully engineered, slim and very low heat. Mine is a prototype, so further one-off versions can be commissioned from me via Sunflow.

This June I will be featuring in the GROW London Fair, Hampstead Heath, London (18-21 June) represented by Gallerist Maureen Michaelson. My work will also be on exhibition at the Hidden Garden Art Show, Hampstead, London NW3 from 6-28 June and ArtParks International Exhibition, Sausmarez Rd, St Martin, Guernsey GY4 6SG.

Workshops and teaching continue to keep me connected with surrounding schools and the community. I’m looking forward to some great projects ahead with students, making large insects, birds and a dragon.