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!

Dreams

Collaged impression of my ideal place for Snakes and Ladders (I) for WAC - in the cathedral nave

It’s wonderful when dreams of possibilities become a reality.  Sometimes things evolve beyond expectations, sometimes there has to be a compromise, and one thing always leads to the next. Two new exhibitions involving installations in cathedrals have developed - both thrilling to be part of! Lots of exciting things are happening at once, so the next few weeks will be a challenge which I’m embracing!

Chichester Cathedral

After a year of Zoom meetings and drawing sessions with fellow Royal Society of Sculptors members, a group sculpture exhibition curated by the eminent Jacquiline Creswell is now in planning stages for Chichester’s Year of Culture 2022.  The theme is loosely based around our group solidarity during a difficult year, new hope, and offers an opportunity to take risks.  We had a fabulous day last week on a site visit to the magnificent Chichester Cathedral, and it was great to finally meet some of the group in real life.

The Cathedral is steeped in art with a startling Marc Chagall stained glass window, John Piper tapestry and Graham Sutherland painting, among other works. Thanks to Walter Hussey, Dean of the Cathedral at the time, Pallant House, nearby, houses an astonishing art collection. I spent a lovely morning catching up with old friends and wandering round the Gallery.

I’ve started working on ideas for it, which I’ll be gradually developing over the next few months. It will be an alternative altar piece with hand woven multiple pieces, inspired by the plight of pangolins - the most trafficked mammal in the world. 

Wells Art Contemporary

I’m excited that my work Snakes and Ladders (I) has been selected for Wells Art Contemporary installations at Wells Cathedral!  WAC received 200 applications for installations this year and Simon Periton chose 28. I proposed that my piece might be suspended in the Nave (see top image), but that’s no longer possible, so it will be in the South Trancept, another grand space in the cathedral.

The exhibition will coincide with the installation of a new Antony Gormley work to be exhibited on the West Front of the Cathedral!   The exhibition runs 28 Aug - 26 Sept; PV Fri 27 Aug, 7pm.

Snakes and Ladders was created for B-Wing, a project I co-curated in 2019. The series of dysfunctional ladders and hangings were installed across 3 floors of the massive wing in the decommissioned Shepton Mallet Prison. They ranged in size from 3-7.5metres. Initially inspired by Piranesi’s ‘The Bridge’, from The Imaginary Prisons series, the work relates to the human cycle of striving, greed, suffering and waste. There’s an element of hope, and dreaming.. Snakes and Ladders (I) is a suspended piece, a skeletal structure which appears winglike and bone-like, reminiscent of flight and extinct animals hung in museums. Made from found and recycled materials including wood and newspaper, my use of discarded materials relates to waste, our relationship with matter, nature, and ourselves. 

Snakes and Ladders (I). Photo by Barry Cawston

Thanks to Nick Weaver who will be my technical assistant in the installation process, and who helped me originally.

Inch by IN:CH

Hope of a Tree at ESR, just before the storm. Photo by Linda Ashe

Our travelling group project Inch by IN:CH has now toured to 3 locations - the most recent was East Somerset Railway, a heritage steam railway station in my village, Cranmore. I invigilated daily when open, and got to know the station more intimately. At each venue the focus and work change, there are different people, challenges and achievements. 

We’ve engaged all sorts of people in conversations about the work and wider issues, so our project is doing what we intended - transporting art and ideas to local communities. 

The staff and volunteers at ESR have been so helpful and and intrigued. We’ve had some great interaction from visitors with our Drawing from Cases sessions and my intergenerational sculpture workshops. 

This slideshow gives a snapshot of my work in situ and some of the events I ran. I’ve been moving my piece around, trying it in different spaces..

Our next stop is Backwell Playhouse (23 Mariners Drive, Backwell, West Town, BS48 3HT), involving free shadow drawing workshops led by Shirley Sharp and me, this Saturday 7 August. Exhibition:12-3 pm; Drawing Workshop: 1-2pm & 2-3pm, book via eventbrite.

My Residency in the Loft, above Heritage Courtyard Gallery, Wells will be starting soon. It will give me a chance to re-make, document and focus on new work, as I grapple with unresolved themes and ideas.  The space will be a real treat for me. I’ll be showing the work in Somerset Open Studios 18 Sept- 3 Oct.

Front Cover of a magazine!

Thanks to Mark Adler for taking this great photo and placing me and my work at Frome Museum on the front cover of Mendip Times, August issue!

Other news:

My All The Colours lenticular Chameleon (created with community participation) is travelling around Somerset on the buses - particularly the Bridgwater to Taunton route. Here we are with one of the exterior panels.

Windows on Nature Trail: my mini solo continues at 51 Fore St, Trowbridge BA14 8ES; June-Sept. All work is for sale

I’ll be taking part in Somerset Reacquainted Touring: Re-imagining Nature, Yeovil Art Space (23 Vicarage Walk, Quedam Shopping Centre, Yeovil BA20 1EU).  There will be a selection of work by 20+ SAW artists. Open 4 Aug-11 Sept, Wed-Fri 11am-3pm, Sat 11am-5pm

I’m running the following Workshops:

Wire Sculpture Workshop inspired by nature: Holburne Museum (outdoors), Thurs 5 Aug, 10.30am-1pm, ages 5+. £12, book via Eventbrite

Sculpture Workshop using recycled & found materials, Sat 14 August, 11am – 4pm, Five Trees Bowlish

Other thoughts:

A webinar that particularly struck me was Rivercide with George Monbiot. It’s about how filthy and toxic all the rivers in England have become, linked to poultry intensive farming and sewage works.  Happy Eggs are not happy..  and I’m glad I don’t eat chicken.

The challenges that continue to face artists can lead to burn out and serious financial instability. I’m looking into infusing my practice with more of a business element - watch this space!

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

A few updates to round off the year:

Exciting news!  I’ve been selected for a commission with SEED and First Bus.  I will be working with the community to co-create artworks to be installed on First Buses across Sedgemoor in 2021.   It will be something a bit different to my usual work, and will stretch me in new ways.   More details coming soon…

Our travelling group exhibition is getting more compelling as plans develop.  Inch by IN:CH is an artist-led project for ‘21, bringing contemporary art out of studios and galleries and into communal areas of our everyday lives.  Small-scale works in cases will be transported from place to place, migrating outwards in a spiral.  11 artists will engage with local communities through workshops, talks and performances.  We’re looking for match-funding for our ACE application, so if you can help in any way, financially or in-kind, do let me know!

My latest piece The Fall is almost at the point where I can call it ‘finished’ (see previous post for details).   A quote from The Overstory (Richard Powers) sums up my thinking: ‘Trees talk to one another... through the networked soil... Mats of mycorrhizal cabling link trees into gigantic, smart communities... there are no separable events. The bird and.. branch.. are a joint thing.. linked creatures..’  Human frailty, greed, the Icarus factor, is the sorrow.

The Fall in progress: steel, copper, found wood, wool, sisal, twine, rope, leaves, feathers, naturally dyed cotton, wax..

My work is on sale at the Artisan Christmas Market, ACE Arts, Somerton.  I will be invigilating there tomorrow (Saturday 19 Dec) - do come and say hello if you’re in the area, and maybe consider buying some hand-made Christmas gifts :-)

Small and Affordable (Frome) is Black Swan Arts’ fundraising exhibition with 100% going towards keeping the wonderful Black Swan Arts alive.  All works are under £300 and under 30cm sq. There are some great pieces for sale donated by artists, for a great cause.

My offering: New Beginnings, found and recycled paper, wax, steel, copper.

My next Online Sculpture Course runs 11 Jan-14 Feb.  If you’d like to learn new 3d skills using sustainable materials, or know someone who does, please visit this link. Places are filling up so book asap!  It could make a stimulating start to the New Year and/or a Christmas present for someone who wants to get more creative ;-)

Also, it’s your last chance to benefit from a 10% discount offer to friends and supporters in my online Shop  (ends Sat 19 Dec)! 

Red Line Art Works trophy. Photo by Jason Bryant

On a positive note, here are a few special moments from this year:

A bronze trophy arrived in the post for winning the Red Line Art Works global award!

Despite most of my exhibitions and commissions being cancelled, I took my work online, launched a sculpture course and made several films. I was lucky to receive ACE funding for Life in the Undergrowth.  

I showed at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, curated by Robert and Nicky Wilson, Jupiter Artland. The pangolin mask I made out of cotton offcuts, dyed with avocado pits, all hand-sewn, has come in very handy.  I feel acutely sad for the plight of pangolins. I’ve scaled back my Christmas cards this year and instead donated to Flora and Fauna to help pangolins, who are being slaughtered en mass to the point of becoming endangered. 

Exhibition trips, seeing my son, other family and friends in between lockdowns, making art and being in the garden have kept me sane. I’ve learnt more about resilience, and the importance of being kind to nature, and each other.

Goodbye to an extraordinary year which has deeply affected us all.  Looking forward to turning the corner!  

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and here’s to a better, healthier year in 2021!

Do keep in touch via my social media channels:

Instagram fionacampbellartist

Facebook Fiona Campbell Art

Twitter @fionasculpture

Best wishes and take care,

Fiona x

The Fall

The Fall (detail) - work in progress

The changing seasons here in UK are a poignant reminder of life’s cycle.  Falling leaves reveal skeletal structures of trees, signifying loss, decay, repression.  In this beauty there is sadness, but also hope and promise.

In Cranmore woods, where rusty autumn leaves thickly cover the ground, I found a couple of fallen trees.  Ripped from the ground, their exposed roots are a mass of interconnecting lines.  My drawings led to new sculptural work, in progress. 

Playing with lines, The Fall is a drawing in space using locally sourced, to-hand-materials: steel rod, copper wire, found wood, wool, sisal, leaves… I’ve been collecting feathers - picking them up wherever I go.  Waxing and burning them produces interesting results.  I’m thinking about Icarus, roots, life’s interconnectedness and lines that ‘give us life.’ (Life of Lines, Tim Ingold).  I’m reading a book The Overstory (Richard Powers) about trees, connections and human/nature conflict.  My thoughts often return to Donna’s Haraway’s phrase staying with the trouble - sticking with the entanglements of life.

Shepton On Show 

Last month I was involved in Shepton On Show - a community event organised by The Art Bank, involving window performances around Shepton Mallet.  I had fun creating a large scale backlit performative drawing in the window of One Craft Gallery in 2 hours, linked to The Big Draw.  Made with egg ink on paper (170 x 180cms), people watched it emerge, alongside other performances. 

The slideshow documents the event from prep drawing to live version.  It was inspired by my @life_intheundergrowth project. 

Exhibition News 

3 film stills from from my film Life in the Undergrowth are showing in the Being Human New Worlds Exhibition.  The work was displayed outside Queen Mary University of London last week and is currently online.  The exhibition shares people's experiences of Covid-19, and the Festival reflects on the radical global changes of 2020, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests and US election.

Our Somerset Reacquainted exhibition at Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury has been extended until 16 January. Once lockdown has lifted, do try to visit if you can, it’s a very moving experience.

Shop

I have developed a little sideline making small copper bowls, each annealed and hammered, plus other copper goodies, ideal for Christmas gifts and copper wedding anniversaries. The bowls are on sale at Hauser & Wirth Somerset’s new Durslade Farm Shop, Somerset, where you can buy locally made quality artisan eco products and foodstuffs.  Very pleased that they are selling well :-)

I’ve added a Shop to my website, which includes these, together with affordable drawings, small sculptures, prints and cards.  Enjoy a browse and if there’s anything you’d like to see added, please get in touch.

A few projects and exhibitions are in the planning stages for 2021. As part of an artist group IN:CH (Incubation Chamber), we are excited with developments for our travelling exhibition next year.  Inch by IN:CH is an artist-led project bringing contemporary art out of the protected space of studios and galleries and into communal areas of our everyday lives.  Small-scale works in cases will be transported from place to place, migrating outwards in a spiral. Artists will engage with local communities through workshops, talks and performances.  We’re seeking match-funding prior to our ACE application.  If you’re able to support in any way do please get in touch.

Next Online Sculpture Course

After the success of this year’s Online Sculpture Course, I’m running one from 11 Jan - 14 Feb ’21. It’s a 5 week course to create a nature-inspired sculpture using found & recycled materials. Aimed at adults, art students, teachers and those who want to get creative, it’s suitable for mixed abilities.  This showreel gives you a flavour of my work and Introduces the course.  Places are limited so book now if interested! To enrol (and receive your free tools list) e: fionacampbell-art@sky.com . It might make a nice Christmas present ;-)

I am thrilled to be featured in The Arts Society winter magazine about my sculpture workshops with art teachers! It was great to be involved in the initiative!

I was invited to run a wire sculpture bugs workshop at Preston School, Yeovil last week.   I really enjoyed being back in school working with young people face to face after so many months.  Students made a lovely range of small creatures.

Stay safe!

Winter News

Last month I plunged into completing a studio renovation project, started earlier this year. Consequently, I have space to breathe and work in my freshened up outbuilding/studio! My welding bay is now sited separately in a converted shed. Storage space is always an issue, but for now, all my large pieces that need weather protection are safely under cover.

I gave a couple of talks about my work - one to an audience of 3rd year architecture students at Bath University. It was an interesting exercise in re-evaluating my practice through a different lens.

I’m excited to have been selected for Art UK’s Masterpieces in Schools programme, 2020 delivery. I will be working with a South West school making sculpture based on one of my pieces on loan to the school for a day. It will be interesting to see which one they pick.

Forthcoming Exhibitions and Courses:

Two of my sculptures have been selected for the Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award 2019 Winners Exhibition - Glut and Of Bones. The exhibition opens 16 December - 20 March, Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm, Dora House, RSS, 108 Old Brompton Rd, S.Kensington, London SW7 3RA. Private View 18 Dec, 6.30pm (RSVP exhibition@sculptors.org.uk). I’m in great company, the other Gilbert Bayes winners are all excellent and very diverse. I’ve really enjoyed my year getting to know them and attending some inspiring RSS development sessions. Our work will tour to Grizedale Sculpture, Cumbria, from March 2020.

I’m working on a new piece for FIFTY BEES 4: The Interconnectedness of All Things. My work will be associated with the Hoplitis Claviventris welted mason bee, one of 50 bees by 50 artists. They will accompany life-sized felted bees by artist/curator Lydia Needle. I’ve been researching the mason bee’s path of pollination. My piece will be an abstract sculptural installation, essentially reflecting connections of bee to pollen, using recycled materials including foodstuff. The exhibition runs 8 February - 14 March 2020, Black Swan Arts Gallery, 2 Bridge Street, Frome BA11 1BB

I’ll be taking part in Incendiary 2, Pound Arts, Corsham, 19 March - 18 April 2020, curated by Patricia Brien. More news to follow.

Sculpture Course

Happily, my first 5 week evening course making organic sculptures from recycled materials at Frome Community Education went well, so I am running another 5 week Sculpture Course on Wednesdays 6-8pm, from 8 January 2020.  If you’d like to book please visit: fromecommed.org.uk

For other workshops please see Forthcoming Workshops

I’ve been getting inspiration from various sources: I attended a bronze casting workshop at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, my first attempt at bronze casting. I visited Mary Sibande at Somerset House, London, who’s work moved me to tears. I went on an an art walk & talk with James Aldridge and took part in a drawing session with Lydia Halcrow in Bristol, part of A Gathering of Unasked Possibility, Centrespace Gallery, curated by Kelly O’Brien and Judith Rodgers, a memorable experience connecting with each other and our surroundings, particularly nature.

Following the touring exhibition Drawing on Dorset, my work now features in a lovely book on contemporary drawing. I have copies available to purchase if you’d like one: £15 (+pp). It’s a beautiful soft back publication with excellent quality images reflecting a wide range of drawing media and styles by some incredible South West artists. A great Christmas gift ;-)

I also have sets of mixed greetings cards for sale at an offer price of 3 x A5 @ £7; 6 x A6 @ £8 (+pp). Contact me in interested.

Report writing continues for B-Wing, but nearly there!

I’m working on a garden sculpture commission in time for Christmas; hoping to clear the decks by then for some celebration time!

Have a fabulous Christmas!

My hopes are that 2020 brings us to our senses - more green and harmonious ;-)