Welcome Spring

What a joy to have spring sunshine and bulbs growing, after such miserable cold months in confinement.  New beginnings bring hope! 

It’s surprising what can be achieved under difficult circumstances. Time in lockdown has gone fairly quickly, as I’ve been working on several projects and finding alternative work solutions, although often computer bound.

In between, I’ve been developing new work in the studio, exploring ideas through collages, maquettes, sketches, and gathering materials.  In contrast to my last piece The Fall (see previous posts), my next feels hopeful.  Ideas are developing of ascending lines expanding beyond grid-like constrictions into lightness and recovery, though precarious.  Yellow is my new colour depicting hope and optimism.  I’ve been naturally dying and hand-stitching recycled textiles, rubber, latex, and plastic as patchworks of repair.  Branching umbrella frames may become supporting skeletal structures. 

A lot of the found and recycled materials I’m using have been sourced locally or donated by friends - thanks to those who’ve helped.

Short Film

A short film about my sculptural practice using textiles has been commissioned by Art UK, working in partnership with Culture Street and Royal Society of Sculptors.  Due to covid and lockdown, it was delayed for a year.  In the end, the artist interview was conducted over Zoom and I supplied footage.  Aimed at schools, it’s one of 10 new film commissions about sculptors and their different processes, as part of a major initiative to put online UK’s sculpture collection. I’m honoured to be included in the series!

All The Colours

I’m one of the commissioned artists leading a community art project via Seed, called Art First.  We are engaging the public in Sedgemoor, especially those who travel on buses.

‘Artists Fiona Campbell, Karl Bevis, Jem Dick and Sharon Jacksties are working on three projects, which will produce artworks co-created with Buses of Somerset passengers and staff and other members of the community. The finished works will be displayed on 30 buses across Sedgemoor.  Covering multiple art forms from poetry through photography to collage, our artists will guide you through the process, giving you tips to find inspiration in your everyday lives to create something magical. All creations can be submitted and your submissions will then be combined into artworks to be exhibited on the buses and online.’

In my project All The Colours I’m inviting people to create a collage in one dominant colour, reflecting on their responses to a bus journey, the past year, a particular experience, mood, feeling, moment, personal or global memory. The images will be part of a co-created artwork which will be transformed into a hologram chameleon. This will change colours at different viewpoints and will be featured on 30 buses for passengers and community to enjoy.

I’ll be running FREE workshops, there’ll be prizes and an online exhibition.  Below is a slideshow I made to offer examples of collages in a dominant colour.

For further info and to participate please visit my page All The Colours.  If you’re based in Sedgemoor, and/or have travelled on buses in the area, please get involved and spread the word!  

Inch by IN:CH

I’m part of an artist-led travelling project Inch by IN:CH, bringing contemporary art out of galleries and into community areas across South West UK. Between May-October ’21, 11 artists will each present mixed media works including painting, light projections, assemblage and sculptural installations, transported in cases from one place to the next.  At each location artists will engage the public through activities (covid protocol in place).

The locations we’ve chosen are unexpected venues for art. One of our venues, East Somerset Railway, is in my village.  Our finale venue will be at the Gauge Museum, Bishops Lydeard Station, West Somerset Railway, the longest heritage railway in England. We will show our work in the newly restored museum, in one of two remaining Victorian Sleeper cars, and spilling out onto the platform. These popular venues for families and train enthusiasts are evocative, meaningful settings for art about transportation of ideas.

We’re so grateful to sponsors including The Arts Society, Somerset Art Works, The Gane Trust,  individuals and supportive venues: East and West Somerset Railways, Fringe Arts Bath and Found Outdoors. We’ve submitted our Arts Council funding application, so fingers crossed we receive this crucial support to bring free programming and events to mixed audiences.

Online Sculpture Course

I recently finished running my second online Sculpture Course. The focus is on nature, using recycled and found materials. Participants produced some awesome work, sourcing their own found materials, and finding so many ways to use them creatively. 

Images: Jinny Jehu; Gwynne Penny;  Barbara Griffin; Magdalena Musanovi

To see more please visit Instagram: #onlinesculpturecourse2021
Let me know if you’re interested in my next course (dates TBC).

Inspiration 

Online meetings and talks have been convenient, with the benefit of international reach. Through zoom I’ve loved connecting with fellow artists. Royal Society of Sculptors meet-ups and new weekly sculptors drawing sessions have been helpful to focus and free the mind.  We are currently working on an exciting group exhibition.

The Overstory, a book by Richard Powers, has inspired new work: There are no separable events. The bird and.. branch.. are.. linked creatures..; ‘reiterated trunks .. shooting up parallel like the fingers of a Buddha’s upraised hand.. tufted spires… swirled in the gauze of a Chinese landscape… fungi and lichen everywhere, like splatters of paint from a heavenly can’

Other relevant resources:

Tim Ingold: Facing the Anthropocene: Life is always creating itself.. Lines are animate... I’ve started Tim’s book Life of Lines, and also The Mushroom at the End of the World (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing)

James Aldridge: Queer Rivers Art Earth: Where does a river stop? Everything is fluid, interconnecting….

Phyllida Barlow: Small works made with the minimum of ambition... Sculpture is a restless art form…

Artists inspiring me: above left to right: Giulia Cenci; Daiga Grantina; Monika Sosnowska; Janet Echelman

Other News

I’m part of the Solargraphic Society of Somerset (Mendip area) organised by Janette Kerr. I put up my pin-hole can camera with light sensitive paper in my garden and look forward to the results in 2 months.

My Bulrushes are now installed in their new home in the midlands (left: pic in snow)

Delighted that my Blackbird sculpture (commissioned by Shepton Mallet Town Council for a Bird Trail last autumn) has been selected as a permanent feature above The Art Bank entrance in the town centre.

Forthcoming Events

Inch by IN:CH a travelling project considering transition, interchange and the transportation of ideas. Various venues, South West UK, 28 May - 3 Oct 

Royal Society of Sculptors 10 gram Challenge exhibition: 28 June – 18 Sept

I’ll be giving an online talk via Red Line Art Works on 25 March, 7pm (GMT). If you’d like to join the talk, please register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApcuiurzkvHtFe6fjc4ZqzB2doWh5SiyNu

In support of the Arts, please visit the Art Is Essential campaign, aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the Arts to a healthy society.

This past year has been a huge jolt to us, and despite the sad and tragic happenings, I’m hopeful that we have come out of it stronger and better.

Latest Projects

In the garden during Open Studios. Photo by Jason Bryant

I had a wonderful fortnight spending quality time with those who managed to get to my Open Studio, part of Somerset Open Studios 2020, in sunshine or rain. I’m really grateful to all my visitors. Along with making a few sales and new leads, I had some really great conversations. Below is a slideshow of the event and some of the feedback:

Fiona reminds us that the sharp divide between the living and the dead is not sharp at all (G.Dunlop)

Love how the garden informs the work and are one (R.Newnham)

A beautiful early autumn day in your magical garden; love seeing the ‘established’ works now blended into the landscape while the new pieces take shape on the lawn.  Your new processes - scorching, hanging, collecting - are fascinating.  Always something more to be found beyond the immediate (V.Keemar)

Thank you, Fiona, for bringing such beauty into our world. Goodness know we need it.  We are Nature and Nature is us.  Your work is inspirational (S.Herfet)

Absolutely divine - I adore your work and garden.  Such beauty and tenderness.  I love the organic nature of your art.  Soothes my sore soul. Thank you (T.Potts)

Really inspiring, fascinating to see the range of your ideas and commitments.  Truly value your references to world and global issues and your totally fascinating ways of interpreting and bringing it to our attention, as well as making beauty.  Thanks you for sharing (S.Hulejczuk)

Somerset Reacquainted continues at Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury until 21 November, Wed-Sat, 10-5 (booking required). Images and objects from my lockdown project Life in the Undergrowth feature in this exhibition, along with work by 62 other Somerset artists. I took part in a podcast with other artists on Friday 2 October. You can listen to it here. Great to see the exhibition featured on BBC Points West.

Earlier this month I installed a new sculpture Blackbird above the entrance to The Art Bank, Shepton Mallet. It features in a Bird Trail around the town, commissioned by Shepton Town Council. 7 artists have created British bird sculptures using natural and recycled materials for a 2 month free art trail for the public to enjoy.

Blackbird 95cm (L) x 68cm (H) x 34cm (D) aprx, recycled and found steel, tin, copper wire, plastic

On Friday 23 October, 6-8pm I’ll be taking part in Shepton on Show,  organised by The Art Bank in the centre of Shepton Mallet.   I’ll be doing a large-scale backlit performative drawing, linked to the worldwide drawing festival The Big Draw: Climate of Change, in One Craft Gallery, Shepton town centre. There will be surreal fantasy window performances around the town by local businesses and individuals. Come along and watch fantastical performances in windows - a celebration of the creativity in Shepton.  Free (safe) fun :-).

Prepping for Shepton on Show

I recently went to London for Frieze Art Week. 2 days visiting exhibitions and another day at Centre of Gravity, Bristol has sated my need to see some contemporary art in person. Images below: Frieze Sculpture, Regents Park: Arne Quinze, Lubaina Himid, Gazelli Art House, Sarah Lucas; Endless Column IV, Cornelia Parker, Frith Street Gallery: immaculately flattened silverware suspended just above ground - so beautiful; Giuseppe Penone, Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery: staggering pieces stood out; Off Grid, Olivia Bax, Standpoint Gallery; 6 Sculptures.., Anthony Caro, Annely Juda Gallery: I found connections between Bax’s work and Caro’s tabletop sculptures. Steel drawn lines against hollow biomorphic forms; line versus solid - perhaps because they’re qualities in my own work; Five Hides, curated by Thorp Stavri: incredible old Victorian swimming pool/boxing ring, now derelict - perfect for huge sculptural and textiles pieces; Centre of Gravity, old Gardiner Haskins building, Bristol: another monumental space ripe for contemporary art.

I had lovely interlude out sketching with my cousin in the sunshine in my local area of Somerset. I feel rejuvenated and ready to start experimenting in the studio again.

I’ll be running another online sculpture course in January. If you’d like details please get in touch.

A few other projects are in the pipeline - watch this space!

Take care :-)

Life in the Undergrowth

Cocooned in our insular worlds, observing and attending to nature seems vital.  On the whole, I’ve been enjoying my deep seclusion.   Rather than work in the studio, the glorious sunshine and accompanying birdsong draws me outside. I’ve been gardening and making art in tandem, both meditative and feeding off each other.  This fusion initiated my self-directed art project: Life in the Undergrowth.  

I’m allowing the process of investigation to lead me, creating and documenting a series of artworks based on hidden worlds that often get overlooked.  My sketchbook is filling up with observations of seedlings rooting and upturned turf with entangled worms.  Working through different processes of collage and maquette-making using to-hand materials, larger pieces may evolve.

Alongside this, I’ve been making and editing videos of the process.  It’s a steep learning curve.  Covid19 has catalysed a need for online creative provision, so I’m building on my digital skills in order to offer an online art course.  I’ve had some technical advice from Richard Tomlinson, Ignite Somerset and am doing an online teaching course with Future Learning, which is really helpful. The advantages of convenience, flexibility, extended reach, instant access, no travel means it could be a sustainable way forward. Below are 3 short video demos I’ve made of different processes: Plant Fibres in Paper, Paper-making with Plant Fibres, and Collage Making using Old Magazines.  These free resources are for you to try out.  If you’re interested in learning more about my forthcoming events and online art courses, please subscribe here.  My first course will focus on creating nature-inspired sculptures, being experimental, resourceful, and deepening our engagement with our environment. There will be an introductory offer and a free giveaway!

Use natural debris from the garden or park to make simple paper artworks.

For full instructions visit my YouTube channel

Audio: Akale Wube - Ayalqem Tedengo extract

Step by step demo on how to make paper with plant fibres.

For full instructions visit my YouTube channel

Audio - Neroche (Snakes and Ladders)

I was thrilled to be selected as an Art Tour International instagram #stayhome #savelives winner! As a result my work is now featured in a double-page spread in Art Tour International’s latest Spring magazine and I have an online interview coming up this Thursday!

Zoom sessions have been a way to keep in touch with peers and join international conversations. I’m grateful for my connections with an artist-led group INCH, Somerset Art Works and Black Swan Arts.

I’ve been involved in several online and postal collaborations and initiatives, which has been energising: 

Vegetate curated by Anna Souter.   A range of artists, writers, curators, social scientists and others responded to Anna’s text prompts in a postal swop. The postal system acted as cross-pollinator. I received a wonderful piece of lavender smelling poetic prose about nurturing the earth and growth. I was inspired by the words ‘pale hairs sprouting... long enough to comb and plait... The growth shone in the sunshine as I trimmed the ends with bright scissors...’ . Responses were limited to letter size/weight. I made some simple pieces - fine copper wire hairs enveloped in khadi paper, waxed. Now sent off to their designated recipients.

Lockdown Portraits with Tchad Findlay - friendly conversation while creating portraits of each other

Letters to the Earth - Earth Day, 22 April. I wrote the poem for Earth Day, and asked Lou Baker to hang it on her Wishing Tree in Bristol.

A-Z B - Between online exhibition - 44AD 

Gardens of Earthly Delights - curated by Jessica Wetherly. Virtual platform to share hidden worlds.

Somerset Reaquainted with Sara Dudman/SAW members; response to unique period of isolation and renewed proximity to nature. To ‘investigate the minutiae of our local environment, sharpening our senses..’ It completely resonates with my own project.  Artists’ work will be posted in SAW’s Instagram takeover.’ Ongoing.

10gram Challenge. Royal Society of Sculptors members are provided with small pieces of wax to create a mini sculpture to be direct cast into bronze. Ongoing.

#artistsupportpledge. Do visit my Instagram highlight to view my art for sale. I’m offering some pieces at very special prices for this excellent initiative to support artists in difficult times.

This past month in isolation has had its ups and downs. Mind meanderings have been liberating, but also uncover mixed feelings, memories, concerns. I’ve struggled with brain fog, feel pressure to ‘make the most of it’, want to resist the market-driven art world, finding alternative ways to support myself, questioning what is important. It’s amazing how little one needs.

As I write this blog, some excellent news has arrived.  I have just learnt that I’ve been awarded an Arts Council England Emergency Response Fund!  The award aims to help artists who have suffered severe financial losses due to covid19.  It will support my Life in the Undergrowth project, digital development and Online Art Course.  I’m feeling extremely fortunate, so thankful and absolutely over the moon!

Stay safe!

Back in the Studio

Last year my studio underwent a space-saving transformation. Walls and floors are now free of clutter - ready for new mess!  I’ve been enjoying the space, absorbed in making alchemical concoctions with everyday soft and hard materials for a sculptural piece Path of Pollination for Fifty Bees IV, an exhibition starting next week at Black Swan Arts, Frome. The piece is a hybrid of sculpture, drawing and installation. I’ve been re-purposing old sponges, plastic netting, recycled wax, paper, out-of-date mustard powder and violet oil ... transforming through cutting, bending, stitching, wrapping and melting.  The process takes me back to my childhood making strange mixtures in my little jungly world at the back of our garden in Kenya.

Path of Pollination - work in progress. Photos by Seamus Nicolson

Fifty Bees is a collaborative art project showcasing the plight of our British bees and pollinators.  Lydia Needle sculpts fifty miniature art pieces and invites fifty artists to create new work in response to one bee’s ecology.  My designated bee is Hoplitis Claviventris (Welted Mason). 

Researching the Welted Mason bee’s path of pollination I got hooked on pollen as matter.  Key to its makeup is its stickiness, the yellowness due to flavonoids for UVB protection.  Mason bees are far more efficient pollinators than social bees.  Pollen transfers from flower stamens, collects all over their body hairs, then drops to other flower pistols, causing cross-pollination.  BirdsFoot Trefoil - the main pollen source for the Welted Mason bee - has a strong sweet ‘violet-scented’ aroma.  After drinking the nectar, the bee deposits pollen moistened with nectar in piles inside a stem, an egg laid on each, so the young can feed after hatching.

The fine copper wire and thread connectors between pollen forms in my work are transmitters of energy. 'Nature is an ever dynamic and complex matrix of individual lives and supporting elements, forming interconnections, of which we are a part… interconnections exist between all matter and lifeforms..a kind of three dimensional fabric .. bristling through all, across space and time… The light dims a little when small threads break between phenomena, fading entirely if there are deeper tears and cuts'. (Ginny Battson, 2018).

Fifty Bees IV - the interconnectedness of all things runs 8 February - 14 March ‘20 at Black Swan Arts, 2 Bridge Street, Frome BA11 1BB. Preview Friday 7 Feb, 6-8pm. All welcome!

I’m interested in string theory and mycelial networks, which offer a symbiotic relationship with plants, evoking imagination and hope.  How to combine life with death, despair with hope. I’d also like to develop more work along similar lines to my piece Glut - wrapped tentacular entrails, sensual bodily forms from waste materials. While thinking on new work, I began an ink and oil pastel drawing (below). Strangely, around the same time I came across similar structures in rock iron secretions at Burton Bradstock beach, Dorset.

The tragic wildfires in Australia (and Amazon) affected me deeply as so many others worldwide, and ignited the idea for an ongoing piece for Incendiary, an exhibition at Pound Arts, Wiltshire (19 March - 18 April).  The focus is Fire, Mourning, and the 'carbon-heavy masculinities' (Alaimo) of climate change. Entitled Pyre, I’m creating wrapped bundles of found/collected objects: items of love and life including sticks, bones, feathers, flotsam & jetsam, all bound, charred and eventually stacked in a pile to form a pyre. To me they are like grave offerings, memorials, wailings, grief bundles.   

My work is currently on show at The Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award 2019 Winners Exhibition until 20 March, when it tours to Grizedale Sculpture.  I’ll be taking part in a Sculpture Slam on Wednesday 12 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm with all other exhibiting GBA artists. We are presenting a series of short 3 minute talks, chaired by Alex Chinnock. The Slam is an opportunity to tell people about our practice, an informal evening open to the public. Doors and bar open at 6.30pm, the Slam runs 7-8pm followed by viewing the exhibition and chatting. Please come along and support if you can!

Glut. Photos above and below by Jennifer Moyes

I’ve been leading a range of workshops and Masterclasses for young people at the Holburne Museum: Colourful Still-Life drawings in oil pastels, Life Drawing and the next one is Painting Self-Portraits in Acrylics on 16 Feb, 10.30am-4pm. For more info and to book visit: www.holburne.org/events

I’ll be running drop in family friendly workshops for Somerset Climate Action Network on behalf of Somerset’s four District Councils, the County Council and Somerset Art Works. We’ll be making sculptural pieces using recycled materials including tin, copper wire, twine and plastic netting, highlighting the climate emergency. Come along on either:

8th February, Sedgemoor District Council. The Sedgemoor Room, Bridgwater House, King Square, Bridgwater, TA6 3AR

15th Feb, Mendip District Council. The Council Chamber, Mendip District Council Offices, Cannards Grave Road, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5BT

22nd February, Vicarage Street Methodist Church, Yeovil, BA20 1JB

For more info visit: somersetartworks.org.uk/have-your-say-on-climate-strategy

Delighted to be taking part in Window Wonderland, Shepton Mallet. I’ll be re-purposing an old work Tendril (5 metres sculpture - see below) for a window display at Tesco, Shepton Mallet (5-8 March), adding recycled components related to Bags for Life funded community projects. Running concurrently with All the World’s Our Playground performance at St Paul’s School, the project is supported by The Art Bank,  Make the Sunshine and the Rubbish Art Project.

Art UK are coming to film me next month for their national project aiming to introduce young people to contemporary artists, writers, filmmakers and performers. Exciting!

I was delighted to have been selected for the Learning Programme Masterpieces in Schools in partnership with the Royal Society of Sculptors.  One of the following 5 artworks will be loaned for a day loan alongside my delivery of a sculpture workshop for schoolchildren. I wonder which they’ll pick?

All the above sculptures will then be available for sale - contact me if interested!

The sculpture course I’ve been running via Frome Community Education ends next week. It’s been wonderful working with some lovely enthusiastic adults, who’ve made some amazing pieces.

I’ve been inspired by visiting several exhibitions in the past month, ranging from The London Art Fair to Hauser & Wirth Somerset (where I sometimes invigilate), and the impressive studios of Simons Hitchens and Michael Fairfax.

Hope to see you at some of my forthcoming events!

B-Wing, Shepton Mallet Prison - Looking Back

Snakes and Ladders, Fiona Campbell, found and recycled materials. Photos: 1 Dave Cable; 3 Caroline Bond; 4 Jason King; 5 Dave Cable

Snakes and Ladders comprise several dysfunctional hand-made ladders and entrail forms. Two are over 7ms in length, one hovering, suspended in the skylight. They refer to ascension, escape, dreams, inspired by Piranesi’s ‘The Bridge’ from his Imaginary Prisons series, the endless human cycle of striving, greed and suffering.

B-Wing, a multi-layered collaborative art project I co-curated with Luminara Star, has been an epic journey, an immersive art experience, extraordinary, and challenging.  Held in Shepton Mallet Prison’s B Wing, a massive decommissioned space spanning 3 floors, 8 artists and writers installed site-responsive works throughout the building, some large-scale, others intimate, to be discovered. The exhibition was only open to the public for 16 days during Somerset Art Weeks Festival, packed with fully booked special events and over 1300 visitors. Community workshops were held prior to opening. Preparation has taken a year (with report writing and finances still to finish off :-/)  

A week ago I took down my last piece from Shepton Prison, feeling exilarated and exhausted. The physical effort of making, installing and takedown was compounded by the amount of curatorial work I’ve invested in B-Wing over the past months/year.  Huge thanks to Nick Weaver for his technical help during the making, installation, dismantling and transport stages.  Each was a complex process with precarious moments - apt for my purposefully rickety Snakes and Ladders piece.  The work entailed some intricate engineering, and construction of a makeshift storage space for my ladder sections. Thanks to Jason Nosworthy for also helping instal. 

There have been so many moving moments, especially meeting and hearing John McCarthy speak on our action-packed Special Events Day. The whole contemporary art in prison experience threw up some very emotional reactions from visitors and participants. I was at the prison virtually every day for a month - throughout installation, the various events, and take down, engaging and absorbing visitors’ responses. We were/are delighted with the feedback, support and level of engagement from such a wide demographic, and so grateful to our venue hosts Shepton Mallet Prison and patrons (see below) for enabling the project. 

It’s been wonderful working with such dedicated, talented artists and writers.  I’ve loved the cross-fertilisation! Thanks to the team effort and hard work of artists/writers Lou Baker, Rosie Jackson, Scott Sandford, Geoff Dunlop, Lucy Large, Alice Maddicott and co-curator Luminara Star, I feel our B-Wing project was a resounding success. 

IN.BRS.2019.39 Collaboration by Scott Sandford and Lou Baker. Photo: Dave Cable

I was excited by the way my ladders were reflected in Scott Sandford’s black pool and how our artworks in B-Wing resonated together.

Glut, Fiona Campbell, found and recycled materials. Photos: Above 1 Jason King; 2 Dave Cable. Below 1 Geoff Dunlop; 2 Dave Cable; 3 Jason King

Tongue, Fiona Campbell, found and recycled materials. Photos: 1 Jason King; 2 Guinevere King

Above - community group work: ‘Possessions I & II’. Images 1, 2 & 3: Collaborative work by adults I worked with. Image 4 Work by Year 10s from Whitstone School & Home ed children, led my me and Luminara Star. Photos: 1 Angela Knapp; 2 Caroline Bond

One of my pieces Dawn Chorus was a simple sound work installed in a cell. It can’t be pictured, but Trevor Smith wrote an article published in A-N, describing his response to this piece and other works in B-Wing.

I addition to my Join-in-the-Conversations with Lou Baker and guided art tours, I ran a family friendly sculpture workshop. B Wing was transformed for a morning into a hive of activity. Families spilled out into the main atrium of the prison wing, working together on abstract sculptures made from recycled materials. Lovely comments from participants include:

“I’ve never mixed materials with wire before - I love doing it”.. “loved the freedom to explore creatively and spend time with my son”.. “I really enjoyed it but if there was one thing I would change it would be the heating” (Marley, age 6)

Rather than detailing all the events, I’m using pictures to tell the story.   Quality images are so valuable. Thanks to Dave Cable, Geoff Dunlop, Jason King, Caroline Bond, Guinevere King, Scott Sandford, Barry Cawston, Lou Baker, Prerna Chandiramani and Angela Knapp for kindly taking some excellent ones pictured here.

Feedback comments include:

‘One of the best experiences of art I’ve encountered in years.’ Dominic Weston

‘Powerful, disquieting, dark and fascinating. Not an easy show but I thoroughly recommend you get to it if you can. Particularly liked the work by Lou Baker and Fiona Campbell .’ Iain Cotton

‘A remarkable series of works to fit an extraordinary space’. John McCarthy

‘Absolutely amazing exhibition with astonishing works exploring a rich tapestry of ideas and interventions.’ Adam Grose

‘Incredibly sensitive use of space and levels. Darkness, depth, hope and light.  Solidarity. … I loved the anchorite cell, the poetry - the use of levels, the ‘chapel’s’ sacred invitation.  The ladders - exploring movement and dimensions - spine and prehistoric relic..’ Amanda Miles

‘Absolutely fantastic!’ Duncan Cameron

‘Brilliantly conceived and executed’. Justine Bonner

‘A very full emotional experience, the work, its placement. Very poignant.’ Rachel Leach

We took part in several radio chats and were thrilled to be featured on BBC and ITV. A film has also been made by Gillian Taylor with BBC of John McCarthy’s interview in response to B-Wing.

For further information visit my previous B-Wing blog posts and our B-Wing website: b-wing.weebly.com

B-Wing is supported by Arts Council England & National Lottery, Somerset Skills and Learning, Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Mallet Prison, Somerset Art Works, Shepton Town Council, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Cranmore Parish Council, MJW Architects, and private donors.

Time for a rest and reflection!