Image 1:
Snakes and Ladders
2019
Photo by Dave Cable
In 2019 Fiona Campbell co-curated B-Wing with Luminara Star, working alongside 6 other South West artists and writers for an exhibition and events during Somerset Art Weeks Festival (21 Sept – 6 Oct 2019).
Artists: Lou Baker, Fiona Campbell, Geoff Dunlop, Rosie Jackson, Lucy Large, Alice Maddicott, Scott Sandford, Luminara Star
B-Wing was an Arts Council funded project, involving site-responsive artworks, poetry and performances, reflecting the prison’s history, and confronting political and environmental issues.
Shepton Mallet Prison is the oldest working prison in UK until closure in 2013. B-Wing’s evocative spaces, full of dark histories, summon powerful responses. Visitors made their way through the labyrinth of cells and corridors, discovering unpredictable interventions, provoking thought and debate.
John McCarthy, world-renowned writer and broadcaster, opened the Special Events Day, 28 September. For five years he was held hostage during the civil war in Lebanon. The day included poetry reading, performance, artist talk and ‘Join-in-the-Conversation’ to bring the work to life and invite discussion.
On National Poetry Day (3 October), writer Rosie Jackson led a poetry performance ‘18 poets in B-wing’ with poets from across the South West.
Community engagement was key to the project. Young people and adult groups took part in workshops creating collaborative artworks to form part of the exhibition. Free workshops, talks, readings, exhibition tours and performances were spread throughout the fortnight. Some free workshops included free entry. B-Wing engaged young groups in free workshops and artist tours as part of the prison’s educational offer.
B-Wing was awarded an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant, together with sponsorship from Somerset Skills and Learning, Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Town Council, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Cranmore Parish Council, MJW Architects, and private donations. B-Wing was supported by partners Jailhouse Tours/Shepton Mallet Prison, Somerset Art Works and Ian Keys.
‘One of the best experiences of art I’ve encountered in years’ Dominic Weston
‘Powerful, disquieting, dark and fascinating ’ Iain Cotton
‘Absolutely amazing exhibition with astonishing works exploring a rich tapestry of ideas and interventions. Thank you.’ 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
‘Brilliantly conceived and executed’. Justine Bonner
‘A remarkable series of works to fit an extraordinary space’. John McCarthy
For further information visit: b-wing.weebly.com
© Copyright Fiona Campbell. All rights reserved, 2021
Found and recycled materials: wood, copper wire, chicken wire, cardboard, paper, wax, paste, steel, twine, fabric, wool, sisial, string, thread, plastic
2019
(See Snakes and Ladders)
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Barry Cawston
Photo by Caroline Bond
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Geoff Dunlop
Photo by Geoff Dunlop
Photo by Jason King
Snakes and Ladders by Fiona Campbell, photographed with John McCarthy.
Photo by Caroline Bond
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Geoff Dunlop
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Dominic Weston
Fiona’s Ladder reflected in Scott Sandford’s dark pool, with Lou Baker’s Shadow Sacks above
Glut , 2018, was installed in the prison as part of B-Wing installations
Found and recycled materials, some with emotional significance (deceased dog’s toys, blanket, lead, collar), foam, sponge, twine, copper wire, old clothes, fabric (some hand-dyed with avocado pits), wool, sisal, string, thread, rope, plastic netting, plastic bags, plaster, handmade paper, wax, oil, steel
Photo by Jason King
Glut is an outpouring, a form of suturing, an emotional response to factory farming, our plastic oceans, animal extinctions, climate breakdown, the passing of life. A ‘curtain’ of tentacular entrails, viscous bodily hybrids transformed, ‘Glut’ is seductive and disgusting. The materials (especially personal items) speak of past lives, loss, textiles, craft. In contrast, the organic forms symbolise death, violence, but also vulnerability and renewal - the duality of horror and tenderness.
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Dave Cable
Photo by Jason King
Photo by Dave Cable
2019
Fiona Campbell
Recycled & found materials: old clothes died with avocado pits, foam, sponge, copper wire, steel, wax, twine, blankets, duvets, pillows, cushion, towels, wool, leather, other fabric, plastic, rubber, thread
Photo by Guinevere King
Flesh, organ, waste, body, violence: the huge sculptural tongue, fragile and exposed, activates its space. Revealing the labour and handmade nature of it, Tongue is like a big wounded body, a vulnerable softness juxtaposed against the hardness of its prop, repulsive but seductive. The labour-intensive process of my work - weaving, wrapping, sewing - is a form of suturing, a cathartic healing, an attempt to repair in response to world destruction. Tongue confronts uncomfortable environmental topics related to human imposition, incarceration and loss of freedom: factory-farming, plastic oceans, animal suffering and extinctions.
Photo by Jason King
2019
Digital recording of bird song at dawn, installed in a cell for B-Wing.
‘...the sound of birdsong fills the room. I close the cell door and my focus shifts to the barred rectangle of light, high up to my left. The sound of birds becomes my image of the outside, and soon those birds are the entire world. Fields and hedgerows, roads and homes; all are present in this piece. Nature is our constant companion, one that we can always count on, and incarceration goes to great lengths to remove it from the life of the prisoner. Is there any more fitting symbol of freedom than a bird in flight? It is fitting that this is the final piece that I encounter on my walk around B-Wing ... it locates me here in more than just a physical sense, and it achieves this by leaving a space between my own situation and the work. I imagine myself sleeping facing that grated rectangle of light that represents everything that is absent. I’d listen to the birds and I’d spend the rest of my life dreaming about the outside world. Or perhaps I would become inured to such dreams, and instead become wholly institutionalised, learning to fear the outside world as represented by that small rectangle of the outdoors and its birdsong soundtrack.’ Trevor Smith, A-n Review, October 2019.
Possessions I
2019
Collaborative adult community group working alongside Fiona Campbell.
Participants: Rachel Leach, Gill Goldaker, Myrna Mitchell, Shelley & Sam Catley, Liz Spurgeon, Dawn & Cal Handy, Sue Green, Val Sherring, Lucy Smith
Recycled materials and objects
Photo by Angela Knapp
Fiona Campbell engaged 2 local adult community groups in collaborative making and the resulting artworks were exhibited in a cell as part of B-Wing.
Participants contributed materials and objects that were no longer wanted, but once held value. These possessions were transformed through a process of binding, wrapping and weaving, focussing on themes of identity, bodies, bound up, incarceration, marking time, time as value. Working together at The Art Bank, Shepton Mallet, participants found the social activity inspiring.
Participant comments:
‘It was exciting to work together in such a creative environment, respond to materials and the other participants. Fiona was encouraging and led us each along our individual paths. Everyone’s work feels cohesive and reflect a real sensitivity to the subject and materials. Conversations became the threads that made our connections.’ Rachel Leach.
‘Brilliant, great experience, enjoyed the workshop and the space. Thank you very much for an amazing workshop, incredibly inspired, Cal and I both enjoyed it immensely. Looking forward to the exhibition’ (Dawn Handy)
Really enjoyed the collaborative element of this workshop. Ideas flowing freely and Fiona’s approach is gentle and inspiring’ (Sue Green)
‘.. really proud to have contributed some small thing towards this very exciting project.’ (Gill Oldaker)
Work by Dawn Handy, participant in collaborative artwork for B-Wing, led by Fiona
Possessions II
2019
Collaborative work by year 10s from Whitstone School & Home Educated children, led by Fiona Campbell and Luminara Star
Recycled and found materials
Photo by Jason King
Fiona and Luminara engaged young people in free workshops making small hand-sized artworks, to be featured as part of the B-Wing exhibition. Based around the theme ‘Possessions’, Year 10s from Whitstone School and local Home Ed families focussed on identity, marking time, time as value, bound, binding. The use of recycled materials made them ‘think more about everyday objects’, which they found ‘inspiring and surprising’.
The objects mimic ‘precious’ objects created by prisoners as currency to trade, as a way to mark time and re-create a sense of identity.
'The number of hours an inmate takes to make an artwork contributes to its value... the greater the number of hours the more valuable... objects of love, affection and power… Artists who work from found objects are considered most creative… most art will fit comfortably in one’s hand’. Tom Skelly, On the Yard
Fiona ran a family sculpture workshop as part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival’s Family Friendly weekend. 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.
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)
Sculpture workshop with Fiona for all ages
Family sculpture workshop - participant at work
Sculpture made by young participant in Family Sculpture Workshop, B-Wing, 2019
Sculpture made by young participant in Family Sculpture Workshop, B-Wing, 2019
Sculpture made by young participant in Family Sculpture Workshop, B-Wing, 2019
As part of B-Wing events, Fiona took part in 2 Join-in-the-Conversation open discussions with Lou Baker. As performative conversations, the artists worked while debating their practice and B-Wing work. Visitors were invited to join in with the conversations and ask questions about their work.
Join-in-the-conversation in progress
Join-in-the-conversation in progress, B-Wing, 2019
Headdress and masks made in Art workshops by Strode College students, B-Wing, 2019
Fiona led an art tour and taster workshop with Strode College Foundation Art students. Students responded by making a headdress (to ward off evil) with Fiona, and a ritual outfit with Luminara Star.
The visit followed a talk Fiona gave at Strode College to inspire their ‘Fabrication' - textiles re-use re-imagine re-purpose’ project.
Adult workshop participant Sue Green working on B-Wing collaborative piece at The Art Bank, 2019
Strode College Art Students visiting with Tour and Workshop
Writer Andrew Miller with participant in Writing Workshop, 1 to1 tuition, B-Wing 2019
Art in Prison 'In-Conversation'
Special Events Day with John McCarthy & BBC, B-Wing, 2019
Lou Baker’s ‘Red is the Colour of..’, B-Wing 2019.
Photo by Jason King
Ian Keys History Talk 'From Wool to Walls’, B-Wing 2019
Artist Talk with Lucy Large, B-Wing, 2019
Poetry Readings by Rosie Jackson, B-Wing, 2019
Scott Sandford & Lou Baker's installation.
Photo by Dave Cable
Imaginary Prisons - poem by Rosie Jackson.
A series of poems created in response to the prison were suspended in cells along the top floor. Rosie Jackson invited south west-based poets to take part in the project.
Photo by Dave Cable
Scott Sandford’s installation
B Branding iron, for B-Wing branding, sourced in Fiona’s home scrapyard .
Photo by Dave Cable