Solo Exhibition extended, and Eco Sculpture Workshop

solo exhibition, photo by Russell Sach

Over 60 people joined me last Saturday at the Opening Event of my solo exhibition, the culmination of a 3-week residency in the large empty shop space (Create@#8, Shepton Mallet, Somerset ).  I've been developing work related to our natural world, and its continuous entanglements, (part of my Arts Council England DYCP award, which also supported my recent research trip to Kenya).   I’ve loved my residency - it was a luxury being able to spill out, expand and respond to the space, with its wonderful pale pink plaster walls and exposed ceiling structures. I managed to ‘complete’ a new sculpture and other pieces.  I’ve now transformed the space into a gallery, comprising sculptural installations, drawings, collages, sketchbooks and the in-between - a range of suspended, wall-mounted and free-standing works.  An evocative soundscape enhances the experience, created in response to my work by Ushara Dilrukshan. Massive thanks to Amanda Hirst and Gill Sakakini (SMart CIC) for their support during my residency. Thanks to all who attended my Opening, to Polly Hall and Jack Robson for helping at the bar, and Doug Siddons for kindly loaning his sound system. And I’m immensely grateful to photographer Russell Sach for his superb photos of the event.

I’d love you to come to my exhibition, now extended for another week, open Monday-Saturday, 11am-4pm, until 25 March.

Solo Exhibition, photos by Russell Sach

Visitor comments include:

'I really enjoyed discovering your work yesterday, being able to turn the pages of your sketchbooks, see your process and walk around your wonderfully poetic installations.’

‘Stunning new exhibition by Fiona Campbell.. launched today, which really takes advantage of this new gallery space. Both the building and Fiona’s work are deconstructed and reconstructed into thought provoking and inspirational new forms, immersed in a mesmerising soundscape by Ushara Dilrukshan.’

‘Fabulous exhibition. You’ve made a gallery of evocative, found, salvaged things. Love the hanging down and reaching up’.

‘..Fiona Campbell's work.. was surprisingly moving… it seemed to pull me in, coupled with the background soundscape, the piece that particularly drew me was ‘The Fall’.  Based on the myth of Icarus, the burnt feathers dangling from the branches somehow spoke of sadness but also the hope of transformation; there was so much life & hope in walking around these pieces.’

‘..thought provoking and beautiful in an unexpected way’

‘Very engaging… love the hangings’

‘Beautiful work using nature and recycled elements to portray something deeper. Really enjoyed the music in the background too, fitting the tone for the pieces.’

Last chance to book a space on my Eco Sculpture Workshop!

Alongside my exhibition I’ll be running an Eco Sculpture Workshop on Saturday, 18 March, 2-4pm.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eco-sculpture-workshop-tickets-524375831227

It was fun to chat to Matt Faulkner on BBC Radio Somerset, 15 March

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f4mrkv.   Listen from 3:44-4:02

‘Human exploitation of nature and the climate crisis dominate Fiona Campbell's work ‘

Delighted with this article about my work by Fiona Keating on Creative Boom’s website:

https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/fiona-campbell/

Thanks to Theresa Simon for the introduction, which led to an interview.

Delighted to have my work selected for Stone Lane Gardens 2023 Sculpture Exhibition/Ashburner Prize.  The exhibition runs throughout the summer from June.  The last time I exhibited in these beautiful gardens was over a decade ago. 

Other Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions:

Darkness to Hope, Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Street, Somerset BA16 0YD, 27 Feb-30 March, Mon-Thurs 9.30am-5pm

Measureless, East Quay 1-23 April. Launch 1 April 6-8pm. Readings eve: 22 April 7-9pm. Linked to the Quantock Poetry Trail led by Ralph Hoyte.

Wander_Land, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens & Gallery, Cornwall.  New work by Royal Society of Sculptors SW group about landscape and walking, 1 July-5 Aug

Launching my Online Sculpture Course and other news

I’ve made a showreel to launch my forthcoming 5 week online sculpture course.   Starting on 3rd August, I’ll be teaching participants how to create a nature-inspired sculpture using found and recycled materials.  

The course includes:

Weekly challenges

Step-by-step guidance at each stage

Demos

Exclusive videos and downloadable content

Online seminars

You will learn:

A range of 2-d and 3-d skills - from drawing and design to 3d wirework

Exciting ideas and techniques 

To explore different media and processes

To source and use recycled and found materials

Benefits of the course:

Work at your own pace from home

Learn in your own time

Individual advice, tutorials and one-to-one critiques

Share ideas

Learn safely 

Opportunity to connect with other participants in a friendly virtual space

Increase your confidence in creativity

Create an item for your garden or interior

After completion, you can revisit techniques

COST:

£80 incl free tools list (by 31 July)

TO ENROL:

Email: fionacampbell-art@sky.com

Entangled I, 180 (w) x 110 (h) x 100 (d) cm, '20

My Life in the Undergrowth project continues (see previous blogs).  My ritual of gardening and documenting has become a rhythm. Exploring new boundaries, free from conceptual dividing lines, drifting between gardening and art, some days are productive others more a blur.  I’ve been getting absorbed in the present, nature, looking at tiny details. Trying to surrender to the moment and allow things to just happen. 

I’m making a film which records a few of the goings on in my garden. I’ve formed a stronger bond with all that comes and goes. Sometimes this has been emotional. Strange incidents happen, stories of life and death - some have been wonderful to witness, others very sad. 

A young rook and blackbird may have died from pesticide poisoning as there have been other similar incidents locally. I watched their behaviour and subsequent deaths. I sat with the rook, left it water and worms, tried to help it, but in vain.  Slug pellets, crop pesticides and other toxic chemicals we use to deal with ‘pests’ seep into the food chain. There are countless eco-friendly ways to protect our veggies - egg shells and copper wire for slugs, marigolds for aphids, or just ‘stay with the trouble’ (Donna Haraway). The rhubarb leaves I’ve been watching decay seemed the right thing to wrap up the bodies.

I’ve approached the project as an art residency. Encounters between myself, the garden as site, and nature, without an audience, in order to gain understandings and make new connections. I’ve been interested in transformation, the entanglement of roots, worms, shoots, earth.  Aristotle called worms; ‘the intestines of the earth’. Bird communication; the vitality of nonhumans; cultivating my aloneness.  Excavating the earth, I’ve been uncovering a glut of old rusty nails, bones and ceramics. It’s been a meditative process.  I am the instrument, allowing creative energy to emerge in its own time. As I make pieces I’m aware of Donna Haraway’s words: ‘life lived along lines… a series of interlaced trails… make kin in lines of inventive connection... stir up potent response.. and rebuild quiet places’.

You can follow my Life in the Undergrowth instagram page to see the journey @life_intheundergrowth

Other news

I’ve been doing digital training via Creativity Works, which has been a great help. It’s a long, windy road but I’m on it!

This week I drove to London to collect Glut from the Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award Winners Exhibition - finally over after its extended lockdown.  At the same time, I delivered Accretion for the RSS Summer Show, opening 13 July. It was the first time I’d worn a facemask for covid protection - a requirement for de-installation. I made my own - hand dyed (with avocado pits), hand painted and hand sewn. I thought a pangolin made an appropriate statement about the origins of covid19 and the wildlife/meat trades in China, which I abhor.

Huge thanks to Arts Council England and National Lottery UK for the Emergency Response Fund enabling me the time to be creative and develop skills.  Thanks also to Richard Tomlinson (Ignite Somerset), Jack Offord, Jack Robson, Dave Cable, Caroline Bond, Duncan Simey, John Taylor, 35 mil, S-J White, Jason King, Juliet Lawn, Jennifer Moyes and Carrie Grainger for some of the footage for the film (see top).

Autumn Events

It’s been a wonderful summer. I often feel a little sad at the end of this season, but what makes it more bearable for me is that autumn is beautiful and in UK we tend to have ‘indian summer’ weather in September. Tied in with that is Somerset Open Studios running 17 Sept – 2 Oct (see invite). It’s something to look forward to and work towards. I will be showing my work alongside Nick Weaver (elegant, organic wood furniture and sculptures) in my rejuvenated garden and studio. Our work compliments each other - we both use reclaimed and found materials that harmonise within natural surroundings. If you missed seeing our focal pieces earlier this year in the Mekong garden at Chelsea Flower Show, which received gold and best artisan awards, we will have these on show during Open Studios. I’m also looking forward to visiting a few other Open Studio venues when possible.

My work is currently on exhibition in 'step in stone’ at Salisbury Arts Centre until 24 Sept. Curated by Amanda Wallwork and me, the exhibition tells the story of last year’s art-in-quarries project. Selected artworks by all 14 artists include re-created dioramas by Tessa Farmer and a GPS soundscape around the grounds by Ralph Hoyte. You can download this on your smartphone via this link.

I will be taking down my work from the Devon Recycled Sculpture Trail, Teignmouth seafront this weekend, so if you’re around that area before Saturday evening, take in a beach stroll, fish and chips and a look at the artworks before they disappear!

In October, I’m taking part in the Quartz Festival’s ‘Outside In’ exhibition (Queens College,Taunton), 5-15 Oct, with over 40 other South West artists and makers working in different media. The theme is the natural world.

I have decided to donate my Giant Spider sculpture to Carymoor Environmental Centre, (Castle Cary) where I know it will have a great permanent home. Originally created for Glastonbury Festival’s Greenfields ’10, it has travelled to various shows around UK since. Look out for it if you visit.

I hope you’ll be able to make it to one or more of these events - have a great start to autumn!