Fiona Campbell Sculpture

Somerset sculptor creates eco art for Bristol's Big Green Week

Somerset sculptor Fiona Campbell has been selected, together with 7 other artists, to produce a series of eco artwork for Bristol's Big Green Week (9-17th June), in her role as a Green Capital Artist in Residence.

Bristol will be hosting UK's first world-class festival of sustainability, with a packed schedule to celebrate green ideas, challenge and engage the public. Speakers will include Grand Designs' Kevin McCloud and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas.

Working mainly from her studio in Cranmore, Fiona has set up a small studio space at the Create Centre, Bristol, to show the public the development of her work planned for the Green Festival. Visitors to the Create Centre can see Fiona at work on the following Saturdays: 21 April, 5 May, 19 May. Her work and photographs of its progress will be on permanent display at Create in between.

I'm making some giant pieces - the tallest being 4.5 metres, using recycled materials (mainly steel and wire) as part of a series of work for the Big Green Week in June. The title of the largest piece 'Man models himself on Earth, Earth on Heaven' relates to a Taoist line and echoes my interest in nature's cycle and our place in it.

I will also be installing a series of giant floating Diatoms in the harbour at Bush corner, by the Arnolfini, for Green Week. It's a great spot for them and I intend to make them very vibrant. They will measure about 1 metre in diameter, made from various found materials. The diatoms will float on orange life buoys, kindly provided by the Harbour Master.

Diatoms are microcosmic sea creatures, now sadly becoming endangered, yet essential to our survival. Beautiful, simple structures hailing back to the Jurassic era, Fiona sees them as symbols of what is important in life.

Fiona often works with recycled and retrieved materials - mainly steel, copper and wire. Woven nests, cocoons and elongated growing structures have been recurring forms in Fiona's work. They reflect latent energy, primal instincts, growth, refuge, metamorphosis, renewal, emergence and life's constant cycle. She has taken part in a number of eco sculpture projects, which include creating a giant 5 metre recycled Spider for Glastonbury's Greenfields 2010