Funds, free workshops, ideas and collaborations
16.7.19
Fiona Campbell
June brought a stream of thrilling news. After months of what seemed like never-ending funding applications and a long waiting game to hear our results, B-Wing received several grants in succession. This will enable us to pay artists and engage the wider community in a series of special events including free workshops, talks and exhibition tours. We are so grateful to Arts Council England and The National Lottery for awarding B-Wing a project grant. We have also received match-funding from Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Town Council and Cranmore Parish Council - huge thanks to them and to all our supporters (see here for a full list). It has been worth all the meetings and late nights at the computer. Now onto the next stages of curating and making.
All the B-Wing artists met together at Shepton Mallet prison recently to celebrate. Ideas are sparking between us and new collaborations brewing. I’ll be collaborating with Lou Baker and Scott Sandford on part of the installation.
All the B-Wing artists met together at Shepton Mallet prison recently to celebrate. Ideas are sparking between us and new collaborations brewing. I’ll be collaborating with Lou Baker and Scott Sandford on part of the installation.
Our newly designed logo (by Chris Lee) retains our ongoing B branding theme. The rusty branding iron will still appear in the odd photoshoot!
In the next couple of months, we are engaging the local community in free one-off workshops leading up to the main exhibition. I am running 2 free workshops for adults on 23 July and 6 August, creating collaborative artworks (all abilities welcome), to be exhibited at our exhibition (see poster). We aim to engage the local Shepton community as much as possible. We are also leading workshops at Whitstone schools and a Shepton home ed group this July, and offering free additional workshops for schools at the prison during Somerset Art Weeks as part of the prison’s educational package. For info on these and special events visit B-Wing Community Events and follow us on our social media channels: instagram, twitter and facebook (@bwing2019) #bwing2019 #artbehindbars .
To book a workshop email: [email protected]
To book a workshop email: [email protected]
For my B-Wing artwork, I have a few ideas on the go and am looking forward to getting cracking during my residency at the prison in August. I will be working on site using the Servery in B-Wing as my Studio. Some of my B-Wing work is going to be quite large, so making part of it on site will make logistics simpler .
I recently discovered Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Tavola VII (The Bridge), from The Imaginary Prisons series, 1745, thanks to a talk by Helene Bremer at Grow Flow symposium, Pound Arts, Wiltshire. The work reinforced ideas I've been developing for months around the theme of rickety ladders. Like the game snakes and ladders, humans seem imprisoned in an eternal cycle of striving, greed, pain, suffering and evil. Louise Bourgeois wrote a series of short stories - illustrated as 9 engravings. 'He disappeared into complete silence’ features skeletal buildings, claustrophobic cells, dysfunctional spaces, human frailty, separation, isolation. Her floating ladders (plate 8) relate to the story of a man who ‘became cut off from part of the world’ through deafness. My large-scale installation for B-Wing will reflect on similar notions.
I recently discovered Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Tavola VII (The Bridge), from The Imaginary Prisons series, 1745, thanks to a talk by Helene Bremer at Grow Flow symposium, Pound Arts, Wiltshire. The work reinforced ideas I've been developing for months around the theme of rickety ladders. Like the game snakes and ladders, humans seem imprisoned in an eternal cycle of striving, greed, pain, suffering and evil. Louise Bourgeois wrote a series of short stories - illustrated as 9 engravings. 'He disappeared into complete silence’ features skeletal buildings, claustrophobic cells, dysfunctional spaces, human frailty, separation, isolation. Her floating ladders (plate 8) relate to the story of a man who ‘became cut off from part of the world’ through deafness. My large-scale installation for B-Wing will reflect on similar notions.
Fiona Campbell, Prison sketch
B-Wing writer Rosie Jackson was inspired by Piranesi’s work when I showed it to her. She has responded in turn with a prose poem - here’s an extract:
‘Welcome to this architecture of remorse. Here you will never stop climbing, one heavy step at a time, your feet no longer yours. See how the levels go up and up. See what an illusion sky is, behind the barred windows. See these broken ladders to the moon’
Collaborations continue...
‘Welcome to this architecture of remorse. Here you will never stop climbing, one heavy step at a time, your feet no longer yours. See how the levels go up and up. See what an illusion sky is, behind the barred windows. See these broken ladders to the moon’
Collaborations continue...