Fiona Campbell

A series of precarious sculptures (stilt structures), thinking about adaptability, resilience, and treading the earth lightly.

Stilt dwellings, built/raised high on make-do scaffolding to avoid floods and other threats, exist on the edges of safety in slums around the world; fragile structures in unstable environments that might collapse. The Landes stilt-walkers of 19th century France adapted to their boggy environment by getting about agilely on stilts. The ancient timber Sweet Track (stilt structure) found in the Avalon Marshes, Somerset dates back 3800BC.  The walkway, constructed on diagonal sticks, was a way for humans to traverse boggy marshland, once submerged under sea. Somali nomads carry their homes - elaborate bundles - on overladen camels (symbols of adaptability, endurance, trade routes). Growing up in Kenya, I have vivid memories of elderly African women walking home from miles bent over with heavy loads piled high on their backs.

This series of work responded to the Zig Zag building: its history as Morlands sheepskin/leather factory, the verticals/horizontals of its Bauhaus architecture and Bauhaus textiles. I sourced materials from marshes, rivers and beaches, and harvested local plants to dye fabric remnants. Bound, wrapped and hand-stitched, the bundles carry politics of textiles: history of trade, colonisation, mass production, and wasteful fashion industry.

In our increasingly unstable climate of floods, famine, wildfires, spiralling wars, animal extinctions, overconsumption and mounting gyres of waste escalating in the name of human ‘progress’, my hybrid sculptures - part creature/vessel/home - are past and future visions. We are living with a weighty burden and uncertain future. In order to adapt, change the narrative of consumerism and economic growth, imagination is key.

These were shown together in As Old as the Hills, a community art project and exhibition I co-curated in the Bauhaus Building (‘Zig Zag’), Glastonbury, Somerset, UK, 2024.

Photo by Russell Sach

Found, discarded, recycled materials: wood, bark, coir, copper wire, leaves, pod, grass stems, charred feathers, fabric, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, sisal, khadi paper, wool, thread, coffee beans, cardamom seeds, nutmeg pods, rice, nylon tights, oil

108cm (W) x 48cm (D) x 78cm (H)

2024

Photo by Dominic Weston

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Jo Hartley

Found, discarded, recycled materials: wood, steel, jute, handmade naturally dyed & recycled fabric, leather, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, old sponges, copper wire, coir, sisal, wool, thread, nylon tights, vegan leather scraps

175 (h) x 80 x 65cm aprx

2024

Photo by Russell Sach

Photo by Russell Sach

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Jo Hartley

Found, discarded, recycled materials: chicken wire, steel, paper, cardboard, wood, leather, fabric, jute, bark plastic, plant debris, sheep wool, and glue

365 (h ) x 185 x 185cm

2024

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Barry Cawston

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Dominic Weston

Photo by Dominic Weston

Photo by Dominic Weston

Photo by Susanna Bauer

with Katherine Ashworth, Pandora/Melanie Thomson performance, As Old as the Hills

Photo by Jo Hartley

Photo by Jo Hartley

Found, discarded, recycled materials (sourced mainly from rivers, beaches, wastelands): jute, fabric (some botanically hand-dyed), twine, plastic, nylon, polystyrene, sisal, rope, wood, wire, thread

305 (h) x 275 (d) x 190 (w)cm

2024

Sack is a distended membrane, a bodily form, receptacle of stuff - waste, consumption, the world heavy with it. 

Collecting is part of my process. I’m a gatherer, scavenger. I find and re-use what I can. Materials were sourced from many places including wastelands, rivers, beaches, some donated. The hand weaving, a form of care and repair, echoes the warp and weft of jute sacks, vertical/horizontal grids found in our built world, and in nature. I hand-stitched the sack using bojagi (Korean patchwork) & Bauhaus aesthetic. Some fabric has been dyed using homemade botanical inks. I use line in a sculptural way, drawing in space and through the medium of textiles.

Sack exposes the warped systems and ideologies of economic growth and industry. 

In Ursula le Guin’s “Carrier Bag Theory”, she quotes anthropologist Elizabeth Fisher's insight: ‘the first cultural device was probably a recipient, such as a pouch, net, or bag, rather than some sort of implement of violence (i.e., spear).

See my PADA Residency for more about the development of this work.

Photo by Cat Robertson

Photo by Barry Cawston

Photo by Roger Spear

Photo by Roger Spear

‘Miss Smith’ performance, As Old as the Hills.

Photo by Jo Hartley

As Old as the Hills

Photo by Jo Hartley

As Old as the Hills

Photo by Jo Hartley

Recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

2024

Recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

2024

Recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

2024

Recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

2024

90 x 51 x 10cm

Grass stems, bark, paper, rhubarb leaf, wool, vegan leather,  sisal, wire, cardboard, plastic, tree spikes, twig

2024

Found, recycled materials: steel, copper wire, sisal, paper, wood, teabags

2024

Found, discarded, recycled materials: fabric dyed with botanical inks (2000yr old bog oak and yew, avocado pits, turmeric, onion skin, buddleia..) jute, teabags, paper, oil, rhubarb leaves, wood (incl 2000yr old bogwood), wire, wood, leaves & other natural debris, hair, sponge from old shoe inner sole found by river, copper, wax, thread, sisal

151 x 60 x 60 cms

2024

Inspired by nymph casts in my pond. Dragonflies are an example of resilience.  Fascinating to watch, darting around rivers (and my pond), they are miraculous beings. They evolved 300 million years old, the most ancient of insects, some with a wingspan of 2 feet. They live most of their life underwater as nymphs, constantly transforming until the final metamorphosis out of water.

In China the dragonfly symbolises summer, but also instability. To the Zuni Native Americans, dragonflies possess supernatural powers. As a spirit animal dragonflies represent positive transformation, wisdom and resilience to adapt to change, once considered to be species of sacred birds rather than insects.

Photo by Susanna Bauer

Found, recycled materials: aluminum, botanically dyed fabric, paper, copper wire, steel springs, plant debris

2024

Photo by Jo Hartley

67 (h) x 33 (w) x .5 (d)cm

Recycled materials: paper, plant debris, fabric, teabags, cardboard

2024

Work in progress, making Stilt Structure III, Zig Zag, Glastonbury.

Photo by Richard Tomlinson

with maquettes

Photo by Russell Sach

Work on show, As Old as the Hills

Work on show, As Old as the HIlls

Photo by Jo Hartley

Found wood and other natural debris, twine, sisal, wire

2024

Created as an accompaniment to the Stilt Structures.

Photo by Richard Tomlinson

Additional work accompanying the Stilt Structures

Photo by Dominic Weston

Additional work accompanying the Stilt Structures

Photo by Jo Hartley