Materiality, Greening the Arts and more

Snakes and Ladders (detail). Photo (above) by Dominic Weston. Photo (left) by Geoff Dunlop

I’ve been working on several projects in schools along with prep for forthcoming exhibitions and new art projects. And pleased to have just recovered from my first bout of covid!

Materiality

I’m excited to be exhibiting with 3 other women artists whose work I admire. We met during our MAs at Bath Spa Uni.  The exhibition has been a long time coming, with cancellations due to lockdown etc…

Materiality (27 April - 1 May) is the first show at Walcot Chapel, Bath since it closed for lockdown 2020.  It features 4 women artists: Fiona Campbell, Kelly O’Brien, Kate McDonnell and Nicola Turner, and celebrates the importance of materials through contemporary sculpture and installation art. Large-scale objects and interventions will interact with the architecture of the Chapel.  We are each driven by our materials and engaged with sustainability in our practices. The exhibition runs  27 April - 1 May, 12-6pm daily at Walcot Chapel, Walcot St, Bath BA1 5UG. Private View Tuesday, 26 April, 6-8pm

Special Events: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/materiality-tickets-295143270467

Salon, Thursday 28 April, 7-10pm.  Join us in the candlelit Walcot Chapel to eat, drink and share thoughts on materiality, facilitated by Professor Alf Coles. Tickets: £10.

Sculpture Workshop with me, Sunday 1 May, 11am-1pm.  Focusing on flora and fauna, you will be creating a sculpture using recycled and found materials. For ages 10+ to adult. Tickets: £12.

Artist Talks, Sunday 1 May, 2.30-3.30pm. An informal, in depth look at the works and our practices.  Clare Whistler will be performing her work reflecting on the exhibition. Tickets: FREE!

Numbers are limited so book your place now! Hope to see you there:-)

SAW Greening Art Workshop: 

I’m leading a FREE workshop specifically for Somerset Art Works members, 22nd April (Earth Day), 10am-12.30pm, Somerset Earth Science Centre, Moons Hill Quarry, Stoke St Michael, Radstock, Somerset BA3 5JU. Parking on site, free teas/coffees.

The workshop will investigate artists’ environmental responsibilities, looking at key concepts of Climate Change and the role of the arts: how we can make our practice more sustainable. There will be a presentation, discussion and practical workshop covering a range of 2d and 3d activities using homemade, recycled and found materials.  You’ll be able to create something to take away, and have permanent access to an online resource pack full of relevant information around Greening the Arts. Funded by Somerset Skills & Learning.

It’s free of charge, but £15 deposit is required to secure your place. Full-refund after you attend the event. Book:  https://somersetartworks.org.uk/2022/03/saw-greening-art-project/ Do join me if you’re a SAW member!

International Biennale ‘Transfiguration' NCTRI, Taiwan

It’s the last couple of weeks of my exhibition in Taiwan, 12 Nov-12 April ’22.  I received 2 beautiful exhibition catalogues - see below and here. A short film about my work for the exhibition will be broadcast soon..

I’m still working on ‘Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand', inspired by the plight of pangolins, trafficked and slaughtered in thousands. The installation will be part of an exhibition Together We Rise at Chichester Cathedral with Royal Society of Sculptors members, 27June-6 September, curated by Jacquiline Creswell.

Here’s a film clip about the work:

Circle of Life

Circle of Life is a school project I’m involved in via SPAEDA. I’m working with primary schoolchildren making headdresses, masks and costumes using recycled and found materials, inspired by the Lion King production, African art and ecology. These will come together in a final story/dance performance later this week.

I’m taking part in the Artists for Ukraine exhibition and silent auction, at Black Swan Arts, Frome between 1 - 24 April. Do visit and bid!

New Beginnings, donated to Artists For Ukraine

Delighted to be featured on Art From the Heart winners in March: https://www.artfromheart.co.uk/post/artists-of-the-month-winners-march-2022

Do support by visiting and purchasing from my shop.

I hope to see you at one or more of these events, and in the meantime, warm wishes to you!

Instead of a Cross, an Albatross

I am relieved that the research-based module 4 of my MA is now over.   I read alot of books - 'Materiality: Documents of Contemporay Art' is a brilliant eye-opener to concepts on matter and process.  I now have a fairly clear run until September to work through ideas and create for my final MA show.  I have been working outside for the first time since last summer in the February sunshine. Though cold, it has been wonderful to spread out and get on with new work.

I have become fixated by the plight of sea creatures, dying in large numbers from trash heap gyres in our oceans. I am particularly disturbed by images of Albatross chicks taken by Chris Jordan, a photography initiative at Midway, USA. Their stomachs get bloated full of plastic objects - sharp shards, lighters and bottle tops, fed by their parents mistaking the floating objects for morsels of fish. Their insides reveal a microscopic view of our trash.  My new piece is a response to this terrible reality, to be shown in a residency at Walcot Chapel, Bath, later this month (12-18 Feb).  I am linking the myth of the albatross in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner (‘instead of a cross, the albatross’) with ideas of the crucifixion, using found objects including old steel nails, rope and plastic.

I had to make a 2 minute video of an artist between 1900-49 to present as part of Dexter Dalwood seminars at Bath Spa Uni.  I decided to make one about Graham Sutherland's Green Tree Form: Interior of Woods.  For a first film, it turned out ok, thanks to my son Jack for his technical help putting it together.  Sutherland’s thorn series brought to mind the association of nails/thorns with the crucifixion for my new piece.

A couple of my pieces (below) will be shown at the Elemental Sculpture Park near Cirencester, Gloucestershire (The Paddocks, Somerford Keynes, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6FE from 1st April to 30th September, 10:30 - 17:00, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, last admission 16:00).  Do visit if you are in the area.

I have started invigilating at Hauser & Wirth’s The Land we Live in – The Land We Left Behind.  The exhibition is a narrative about our relationship with the rural, featuring an incredible selection of artists including Archimboldo, Beatrix Potter (a lovely drawing of fungal spores which prompted me to investigate her innovative work on lichen and fungi), Samuel Palmer, Henry Moore, Mark Dion.  An intriguing show and so comprehensive, it is worth several visits.  As part of the exhibition there is an Honest Shop where local artisans can sell their work (£20 max).  I have some small copper items for sale – enameled lichen forms, keyrings, incense holder, balls and hearts!

Yesterday I visited Dorothy Cross’s Glance exhibition at The New Art Centre, Roche Court, near Salisbury. I was amazed by her carved marble Bed with its gently creased sheets and soft-looking pillow hollowed by an absent head. She manages to turn a traditional medium into something very contemporary.  Her body fragments - dangling feet and hand casts are also very beautiful.

Here's to more February sunshine!

Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions 2017

I will be taking part in the following exhibitions this year: Bath Spa University MA Open Studios, Dartmouth Ave, 25-27 January

Walcot Chapel MA Fine Art Residency. 13-20 Feb. Open Eve Mon 20 Feb, 6-8pm, Walcot Chapel, Walcot Gate, Bath BA1 5UG

'The Future Can't Wait', MA Show, Long Gallery, Black Swan Arts Centre, 2 Bridge St, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB, 18 March - 5 April. Preview Fri 17 March 6-8pm

Wylye Valley Art Trail, 26 May - 4 June

Fresh Air '17, Quenington Old Rectory, Quenington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5BN, 11 June - 2 July, open daily 10am-5pm, £5 Adults, children free

Bradford-on-Avon Sculpture Garden, 'Lynchetts', 15, Woolley Street, Bradford-on-Avon, 24 June - 2 July, 11am-6.30pm, closed Mon

Fifty BEES: The Interconnectedness of All Things, ACEarts, Somerton, 1-22 July, open Tues - Sat, 10am-5pm

Summer Sculptures, Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, BA6 9EL, 1 July - 1 October (normal admission applies)

Evolver Prize '17, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton, 8 July - 26 August

NGS Open Garden, Benter, Somerset, 23 July, 10am-5pm

'Form and Fascination', Courts Garden National Trust, Holt, Nr Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, BA14 6RR, 9 September - 15 October (closed Wednesdays).  Last entry to garden 5pm.  My work will be shown alongside Ian Turnock's.  Private View Fri 8 Sept 6-8pm

Somerset Art Weeks Festival 'Prospect'.  I will be taking part in 2 exhibitions with Angela Morley, spanning East and West Somerset.  'Ephemeral and Eternal', Round Tower Gallery, Black Swan Arts, 2 Bridge St, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB, 16 September - 7 October, 10am–4pm, Mon to Sat, (open Sun 1 Oct); Preview Fri 22 Sept 6-8pm and Clayhill Arts, Clayhill Farm, Charlynch Lane, Bridgwater TA5 2PH, 23 September - 8 October, 11am-6pm, Wed-Sun

As part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival we will be running workshops: Black Swan Arts: ‘Organic Forms’: Wed 4 Oct, 1-3pm (Angela Morley); Sat 7 Oct, 10-12 or 1-3pm (Fiona Campbell); book via www.eventbrite.co.uk; Clayhill Arts: ‘Organic Forms Found Materials’ Sun 8 Oct, half day or full day (Fiona Campbell); or ‘Organic Forms Willow Weaving Sun 8 Oct, half day or full day (Angela Morley), or combination of each: book via www.eventbrite.co.uk

MA Degree Show, Bath School of Art & Design, Sion Hill, Bath, BA1 5SF, 23 - 27 Sept, 10am-5pm.   This will be an interim show for me, being my first year of two, part-time

Black Swan Arts Open, 2 Bridge St, Frome BA11 1BB, 2-29 Nov, 10am-4pm, Mon to Sat

More details to follow on these and other exhibitions.