Sack

Sack; found, discarded & recycled materials (mostly from Barreiro post-industrial wasteland and Lisbon): jute, fabric (some botanically hand-dyed), twine, plastic, nylon, polystyrene, rope, wood, wire, thread; 2024. Photo by Celso Rose, PADA Gallery, Barreiro, Portugal

Sack (iteration V). I envisaged my final piece being installed in the site that inspired the work - an abandoned post-industrial wasteland of plastic, concrete and steel debris. Image created by Ellie Foreman-Peck. a virtual rendition of my idea, as it wasn’t possible to install due to logistical and time constraints.

Me with Sack. Photo by Ticiano Rottenstein

PADA Residency Exhibition, Barreiro, Portugal. Photo by Celso Rose

Sack (iteration IV), sited on river Tagus beach. I returned dismantled parts of my stilt structure to where they were found here. Photo by Celso Rose

Sack (iteration II)

Sack stitched together, with stilt structure

Me with stilt structure

Sack (iteration I). Sited as a hanging in the post-industrial wasteland, Barriero, Portugal - the site that inspired the work. Photos above & below by Celso Rose

Sack; mixed media relief collage: discarded objects/materials & graphite rubbings

Sack is a site-responsive artwork, created during my PADA art residency in Barreiro, near Lisbon, Portugal in February. The work evolved in stages, as a response to PADA’s history as a jute warehouse, and the nearby post-industrial toxic wasteland. The bodily form, a container of waste, is made from a hand-stitched patchwork of discarded materials/offcuts I collected in the locality, especially jute sacks. The warp and weft of the weavings reflect grids in urban surrounds. Colours reflect yellow wild flowers and lichen growing on concrete; and reds/oranges of iron and sulphur..

In Ursula Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, she describes the sack as ‘belly of the universe.. a ‘womb.. tomb…. unending story.’ It follows Elizabeth Fisher’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Human Evolution:. She suggests ’the first cultural device was probably a recipient’ (rather than a spear/stick). Symbol of a softer story. It matters what stories you tell (Donna Harraway).

I loved the residency. It was an intensive month working in a spacious studio alongside other residency artists, exploring the area, and utilising waste materials. My work was documented/filmed in sites relevant to its development, thanks to Celso Rose, and exhibited in our final residency exhibition. Days were long, many hours spent collecting found materials in the industrial park and along river Tagus beach to use in the work; back and forth with trolley loads.. I made a short film of this process (below). The tall stilt structure was made from found wood and rope from the beach. A new process for me was weaving found/to-hand materials into artworks, which became part of the larger piece, hand-stitched together to form the giant sack. They were laborious processes, and at times I wasn’t sure it would all pull together.

Our exhibition Private View event was a great success. It was lovely to see an old schoolfriend, Sonia there, and I’m grateful for the feedback I received from visitors. At the end of the residency, after de-installation, I placed the raft section of my stilt structure on the wall at PADA studios (pic 13 in grid below). I’m extremely grateful to Tim Ralston for hosting and for his technical support, all the artists involved for their comradeship and help, and Tania Geiroto Marcelino for curating the show. Sack is a living sculpture that will adapt, perhaps grow, according to future sites.

Current and upcoming exhibitions and projects:

Casting Shadows ACEarts Somerton, Somerset TA11 7NB;  2 March - 6 April (Tues-Sat), with Royal Society of Sculptors members.

Stilt Structure I; found, recycled & waste materials: wood, bark, coir, copper wire, leaves, pod, grass stems, charred feathers, fabric, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, tennis ball, sisal, khadi paper, wool, thread, coffee beans, cardamom seeds, nutmeg pods, rice, nylon tights, oil; 2024

Sustainable Art Open, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset BA16 0YD. Book a free slot here to visit. Open 9:30am-5pm, 21 Feb - 21 March (Closed Sun - Tues). Tel: 01458 444322.

A giant collage installation with text spanned the galleries of the Baptist Chapel during the Shepton Mallet Snowdrops Festival in February.  Themed ‘Nature Unbound’, the work was created in a workshop with me, Polly Hall, and community, installed by Georgia Freely. Photos below: 1-4,6,8 Andy Ladhams; 5,7 Kirsten Madeira-Ravell

Excited about an upcoming collaboration with dance artist Vanessa Grasse. We will be working together in a residency over a 5 day period to create sustainable wearable sculptures for Vanessa to perform with as part of her choreographic project Elysia.

I’m co-curating an art project As Old as the Hills with Jan Ollis. Residencies will lead to an immersive exhibition with 10 artists + events in the Zig Zag building, Glastonbury for Somerset Art Weeks Festival ’24.

Back to teaching at Bath College. If you’re interested (or know someone who is), do sign up to my next Love 2 Learn Sculpture, Painting, Drawing or Life Drawing courses.

Please follow me on Instagram for more regular updates and images.

Have a wonderful Easter!

PADA Residency

I’m half way through a PADA art residency in Barreiro, near Lisbon, Portugal. I’m embracing the rigorous schedule of work, and a massive studio alongside other inspiring artists from across the globe. Sited within a post-industrial zone, parts of which have gone to ruin through toxic contamination and bankruptcy. The dystopian wastelands a shocking, mind-opening example of the repercussions of industrial/economic growth and ‘progress’.  Pyrite was used in making fertiliser. It oxidises, creating toxic sulphuric acid. Skeletal structures, piles of waste, remnants of plastic leakage, warped and crystallised into unfamiliar forms, materials mangled and tangled. Remains of disaster. Shadows of the past. Reminder of our future..

I’m responding to the dystopian wasteland and PADA’s history as a jute warehouse. Vasco da Gama discovered India, where jute originates. Trade routes, colonisation (eg Mombasa/Malindi..) mass production, and the Carnation Revolution (‘74) ensued.

I’m making a colossal sack, and stilt structure to support it. Sack is a bodily form, bundle, container of waste, made from a patchwork of discarded materials/offcuts gathered locally, especially jute sacks. Offcuts include Indian fabric from Malindi. Grateful to @soniapicolo who helped me source waste fabric in Lisbon. Some of the patches are weavings I’ve made with stuff from the wasteland, reflecting grids in surrounds, and warp and weft of jute. Others botanically hand-dyed - all hand-stitched together.  Colours of yellow wild flowers. moss growing on concrete, reds/oranges of iron and sulphur..

In Ursula Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, the sack represents the ‘belly of the universe..a ‘womb.. tomb.. unending story.. hope’. In a preceding book, Elizabeth Fisher claims man’s ‘first cultural device was probably a recipient’ (not bludgeon).

Collecting/scavenging materials has been part of my process. For the stilt structure I hauled a 4 metre pole back along river Tagus in a storm!

We’ve also had a bit of time to enjoy eating out, listening to local fado music, and visiting exhibitions in Lisbon. I had a visit from Mark Richards (Royal Society of Sculptors), and met up with an old schoolfriend Sonia, at the Berlinde de Bruyckere exhibition at MAC/CCB. Overwhelmed by the powerful work, curated in the huge avant-garde galleries. Glorious yet repelling bodily forms.

I’ll post final pics of my PADA work in my next blog. To keep more up-to-date with my ongoings follow me on Instagram.

Upcoming Exhibitions

PADA Residency Exhibition, Rua 42, n2, Parque Empresarial da Quimiparque,
2830-904 Barreiro, Portugal; Sat 24 Feb, PV 6-9pm.

Sustainable Art Open, Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School, Butleigh Rd, Street, Somerset BA16 0YD. PV Wednesday 21 Feb, 7.15pm. Book a free slot here to see it during our open hours. Featuring artists who work with environmentally-friendly materials and incorporate sustainable practices. Open 9:30am-5pm, from Wed 21 Feb - Thurs 2 March (Closed Sun - Tues).

Casting Shadows ACEarts, Market Place, Somerton, TA11 7NB; 2 March - 6 April; with Royal Society of Sculptors members. You’re invited to meet the artists on Saturday 2nd March between 11am-1pm. The exhibition runs from 2 March - 6 April.  I’ll be showing a new piece Stilt Structure I. It would be great to see you!

Shepton Mallet Snowdrops Festival, 12-18 Feb: A giant scroll-like mixed media collage installation, with text, is spanning the galleries of the Baptist Chapel, Shepton Mallet. It’s on show from 16-17 Feb during the Festival (theme ‘Nature Unbound’). Created in a workshop with me, writer Polly Hall, and community. Poetic words were laser cut onto the finished scroll. Georgia Freely and Polly installed the work while I’m away. See full diary here. Do visit if in the area.

Delighted to announce we’ve achieved our match-funding for a new project I’m co-curating with Jan Ollis: As Old as the Hills. Thanks to: The Arts Society Wessex area, a local charitable trust, Simon & Chrisi Kennedy Paddy O’ Hagan, & Ben Malin. Fingers crossed our ACE application is successful.. Residencies will lead to an immersive exhibition and events in the historic Zig Zag building, Glastonbury for Somerset Art Weeks Festival ’24. Rooted in heritage and environment, with community engagement, we have some excellent artists on board. Do follow our new instagram account.

Really pleased with exploration and outcomes from participants of my Online Sculpture Course - see their work below:

Flags of the Forest, Residency, Exhibitions, Workshops

Flags of the Forest (in progress). Photo by Russell Sach

Happy New Year (I think I can still say that as it’s still January, just)!

Knuckling down to studio work has been a priority this past month. I’m developing new work as part of my Arts Council England ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ Award. The award supports a year’s development, including my recent research trip to Kenya (see film), and mentoring with Mark Devereux Projects - which helps motivate me. I’m working on several pieces, leading to upcoming shows, including a residency/solo exhibition in a large empty space, Create@#8, Shepton Mallet, and Wander_Land at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens and Gallery, with Royal Society of Sculptors this summer.

Inspired by walks in woodlands, I’m creating a series of Flags of the Forest. The flags celebrate bio-diversity, hopeful of nature being more cared for, and thriving.  These involve a combination of sculptural lines and fields of colour in space - hand-stitched patchworks of semi-translucent fabric and plastic remnants.  Some I’ve botanically dyed, eco-printed or embedded with found objects collected on walks.

I’m really grateful to photographer Russells Sach for visiting me last week for a photoshoot in my studio. It was a great opportunity to test out how the separate elements of my Flag pieces work together (and have a tidy up!).

Flags of the Forest (in progress). Photos by Russell Sach

Woods and forests provide vital ecosystems - crucial to our survival. Trees and their underground connections with mycelia fascinate me. Trees inspire awe, such slow-moving tolerant beings with ancient energies. My labour-intensive process is key to the work. Care and repair, making do, reusing, avoiding wastefulness. The binding, weaving and hand-stitching is cathartic, a form of suturing - healing through making.

If you have any green fabric/old clothing you’d like to get rid of, please let me know. I can collect if in the Somerset area.

Collage for Above and Below - a sculpture I’m developing

Botanical-prints on khadi paper, created after watching online demo with Suzanne Ledesma-Sikkerbøl

I plan to create a dyers garden. This will take time, so while I set up, I’m on the look out for certain leaves and flowerheads (unwanted) for eco-printing eg: eucalyptus leaves, african daisies, chocolate cosmos, dahlias, coreopsis, madder root… If you’re able to save me any of these, please get in touch!

During my residency at Create@#8, 20 Feb-10 March. the space will be open to visitors on Fridays and other days by appointment.  From 11-19 March, ongoing work will be showcased in a solo exhibition (Mon-Sat 11am-4pm, 8 Town Street, Shepton Mallet BA4 5BG). The Opening Event is Saturday 11 March, 2-4pm - save the date, I’d love you to come!  There will be a compositional soundscape in response to works by Ushara Dilrukshan. I plan to show a range of suspended, wall-mounted and freestanding works in the empty shop space, including a few pieces from my Life in the Undergrowth project. All welcome! 

I have some workshops you might be interested in (pics below of one I ran last weekend):

Join me in creating small snowdrop-inspired sculptures as part of Shepton Mallet's Snowdrop Festival on Friday, 17 Feb, 2-4pm, at The Art Bank Cafe, 13 High Street, Shepton Mallet BA4 5AA. Supported by Snowdrop Festival. Tickets £5. Book: eventbrite.

Shepton Reflections: a FREE one-day art and creative writing workshop with me and Polly Hall, Fri 3 March, 10am-4pm at Shepton Mallet Library. Using written word, poetry, botanical dyes and textiles we’ll make a suspended artwork featuring the Market Cross.  Supported by Shepton Mallet Town Council. Book: eventbrite.

Linked to my exhibition at Create@#8, I’ll be running an Eco Sculpture Workshop on Sat, 18 March, 2-4pm. Tickets: £18. Book: eventbrite.

Very happy my piece Entangled VI was selected for an exhibition Darkness to Hope at Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, opening 27 Feb. For more details please visit current and forthcoming events.

Looking forward to Spring!

Studio Time

Collage, recycled materials and found objects: paper, plant debris, metal, botanical dyed fabric remnants, plastic, tea bags, wool

Maquette, recycled and found steel, copper, sticks, wire, pondweed

Flags of the Forest (detail), recycled and eco-printed fabric, wool, plastic, leaf

Drawing, inks, plant-dyed fabric, netting, paper

I’ve been working through new ideas in the studio, making sculptures, textiles pieces, collages, eco-prints and drawings.

Developing a series of flag pieces that might all work together. Large-scale drawings in space with fields of colour, celebrating diversity/bio-diversity, hopeful of nature being more cared for, and thriving. Flags represent a shared ideal. Hoists may become growing lines.

A series of maquettes and collages are chasing an idea for larger pieces in conversation. Interconnected entangled substrates with vertical lines supporting infinite small life forms in cyclical transformation. Layered surfaces made up of debris and ‘found’ objects - some found on walks. Vertical lines piercing woven surfaces. Intersecting roots, rhizomic systems, strata, fragile edges. Life above and below.  ‘Fungal networks lace woodland soil… slow stories… making and remaking’ (Robert Macfarlane, Underland).

Been eco-printing on fabric and paper with some success, thanks to Nicola Brown's free bootcamp videos, and online botanical printing demo with Suzanne Ledesma-Sikkerbøl via Zen stitching.

Mentoring sessions with Mark Devereux Projects are helping to challenge my practice. Still overjoyed and so grateful to have been awarded an Arts Council England ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ Award. My instagram account @fiona_campbell_dycp is documenting progress.

In between making, I’ve been preparing for my Kenyan research trip later this month. Really excited to be meeting the team at Untethered Magic and other Nairobi-based artists. I’ll also be visiting art galleries and museums around Nairobi and Malindi.

Lovely to have been interviewed by Art Etcetera editor Jordan Brinkworth and featured as an artivist in a special edition on eco-art. The Artivists is almost twice the size of their standard digital editions, with an extra 30 pages dedicated to eco-artivism.  In an effort to push for greener alternatives to paper, they are offering a special digital environmental edition for just £1.99 using promo code GODIGITAL on their website.  The edition is partnered with Art From Heart (who selected me as artist of the month in March).

I took part in ‘Lore & Draw’, an event celebrating Coleridge’s 100th annniversary at the Ancient Mariner. We made mud and charcoal mixes, and used sticks/feathers as drawing tools. Inspiring ideas for future workshops.

Recent Inspiration:

Books: Underland - Robert Macfarlane (highly recommend); The Man Who Planted Trees - Jean Giorno; Women on Nature - edited by Katharine Norbury

Podcasts: Brilliant talk by Frances Morris on Louise Bourgeois (currently on show at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, where I occasionally invigilate). Becoming Fungus: poetic sound art with reading by Merlin Sheldrake - extract Entangled Life

Exhibitions: Visited William Kentridge at Royal academy of Arts. A mind-boggling range of powerful expressive multi-media work focusing on South African politics: apartheid colonial oppression, conflict, loss. The impressive scale of work spans drawing, prints, film, theatre, collage, tapestries, sculpture. One large room with 5 films features multiple charcoal drawings as animated films (drawings for projection), through an erasure technique ‘palimpsest’ and stop-motion camera. I wish I could have stayed longer, there’s so much to take in.