The Gleaning - a-n The Artists Information Company

Venue: St Peter & St Paul’s Church
Starts: Saturday, September 24, 2022
Ends: Sunday, October 9, 2022
Address: Church Lane, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 5BW
Location: South West England
Organiser: St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Church Lane, Shepton Mallet BA4 5BW

The Gleaning is a collaborative community arts project involving people from all walks of life around Shepton Mallet to join together in making elements for an exhibition with events. Co-curated by artists Gill Sakakini and Fiona Campbell, working closely with writer Polly Hall, they weave heritage with present lives.

Large-scale translucent textile and paper artworks will be suspended in front of 11 clear glass windows in Shepton Mallet’s beautiful 12th century church. Created to represent light, looking beyond, raised vision, and different perspectives, each panel has a theme, interconnected visually and conceptually. Themes include Earthlings, War/Conflict, Calm/Peace, Gratitude, Ruth’s Story, Shepton Mallet: the place, Care and Repair, Journeys, Generosity. Stories reflect different styles and cultures using found and recycled materials, all created with local community. Many processes have been explored including drawing, collage, home-made plant dyeing/tie dye, print, batik, stitching, found poetry.. on recycled fabric, plastic and paper remnants, using natural inks, and fusing artisan craftsmanship with contemporary art. The project reconnects the community with environmental concerns.

The Gleaning references the Biblical rule of leaving a portion of one’s crop for the poorest to glean (Leviticus 19, v 9-10). The central thread of Harvest Festival celebrates plenty, gratitude, generosity, sharing, social cohesion, giving voice to the marginalised. The project addresses Somerset Art Works’ theme ‘Sanctuary’, with its key strands of the Spiritual, Sustainable and Social. The exhibition is in St Peter and St Paul’s Church, a spiritual venue, welcoming, safe, sacred. The oldest building in town, it has offered sanctuary to all comers throughout history.

A whole series of workshops this summer offered free creative opportunities for all, some linking with Gill’s weekly Drawing On sessions in Collett Park. Art and Writing workshops took place in Sweet 11 Romanian Café, Shepton Mallet Church and town centre, Collett Park and at Fiona’s garden/studio. Participants explored various forms of printing, appliqué, textiles collage, drawing, poetry and contemplative writing.

‘Through the arts, we’ve opened up space for dialogue and growth. The workshops have been like building blocks, giving a sense of belonging through intergenerational art-making’. (Curators Gill and Fiona)

‘Through informal notes, random conversations, acrostic poems, found poetry and contemplative writing the words for The Gleaning have been gathered.’ (Writer Polly Hall)

The Gleaning collaborations culminate in a final exhibition as part of Somerset Art Weeks’ Festival, supported by events including a jazz concert, and dramatic presentation of the Book of Ruth. The exhibition launched on 22 September, and is open daily until 9 October, Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12-5pm.

For further information, visit www.gillsakakini.com/the-gleaning-shepton

instagram: @thegleaning_shepton

EVENTS

St Peter & St Paul‘s, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5BW (unless indicated)

Thurs 22nd Sept, 6-8pm, Launch of The Gleaning

as part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival (23rd Sept-9th Oct)

Mon 26th Sept, 5-5.30pm, Gleaning Vespers (music, silence, word and image)

Tues 27th Sept, 10am-12pm, “Drawing On” – workshop exploring The Gleaning textiles

Weds 28th Sept, 11am-12pm, Artists’ Talk – Fiona & Gill speak about the work

Thurs 29th Sept, 5-5.30pm, Gleaning Vespers (music, silence, word and image)

Fri 30th Sept, 10.30am, Market Cross, Shepton Mallet: “Encounter Ruth”

Pop-Up dramatic presentation of the Book of Ruth

Sat 1st Oct, 10am-12pm, “Care and Repair” – all-age workshop exploring care & repair

Sat 1st Oct, 11am & 3pm, Market Cross, Shepton Mallet: “Encounter Ruth”

Pop-Up dramatic presentation of the Book of Ruth

Sat 1st Oct, 8-9pm, Jazz Concert by ‘East of Meon’: Latino vocal and instrumental jazz responding to harvest themes in The Gleaning exhibition. Tickets £5 on Eventbrite

Sun 2nd Oct, 3pm, “Encounter Ruth” Pop-Up dramatic presentation of the Book of Ruth

Tues 4th Oct, 5-5.30pm, Gleaning Vespers (music, silence, word and image)

Weds 5th Oct, 3.30-5pm, “After School Art” – create a themed piece from Gleaning fragments

Thurs 6th Oct, 5-5.30pm, Gleaning Vespers (music, silence, word and image)

Sat 8th Oct, 3pm, “Song & Celebration” – Local School Choirs perform a specially-commissioned song for The Gleaning with a balletic response by dancer Joe Ducille

Sun 9th Oct, 8-10pm, Evening at the Gleaning: poets and artists share their responses to The Gleaning

All events (except Jazz Concert) are FREE

For further details and to book, please see The Gleaning www.gillsakakini.com

Fiona Campbell

Fiona is a visual artist, educator and curator, passionate about art and nature. Brought up in Kenya, she is now based in Somerset, UK. Fiona creates mixed media artworks, often blurring boundaries between sculpture, drawing and installation, sometimes as large scale assemblages. Approached as drawings in space, line extends into 3d form. Fiona also works in film, and dips into performance. She works within the community, collaborating and curating art projects involving social engagement - often in unexpected places for art. At the root of her practice is the notion of interconnectedness throughout nature, line as energy, life’s cyclical persistence and transformation. Increasingly, environmental concerns about human exploitation of nature and over-consumption inform the content, taking her work into the realm of artivism. Fiona is interested in tentacularity - linear life forms repeated micro to macro. She sees these rhizomic connections as metaphors for life, vitalism and regeneration. 'Tentacularity is about life lived along lines ... a series of interlaced trails’ (Donna Haraway). Materiality and process are central: Fiona's work is labour-intensive and her use of found objects, discarded and recycled materials relates to waste, our relationship with matter, nature, and ourselves. Collecting materials is an intrinsic part of the process. Throughout, there is an underlying theme of sustainability. Fiona gained an MFA from Bath Spa University in 2018 and a BA from Byam Shaw School of Art, London in 1987. Alongside her own practice, she teaches art and brought up her son. In 2019, she won a Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award culminating in RSS GBA Winners exhibition, London & becoming a Member of RSS. She was selected for Ingruttati Palermo workshop and exhibition, part of Manifesta12, Italy, where she made a performative piece Gift of Water. Residency solos include Offenders, Cells, Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, '19; Found, Now Missing, Voyages at Contains Art, Watchet '14; and she was highly commended for her Green Capital Residency, Big Green Week, culminating in exhibitions at Create Centre and Arnolfini, Bristol, '12. Fiona was awarded Arts Council funding for her ambitious project ‘step in stone‘, involving site-specific artscapes in Mendip quarries with 14 international artists, in 2015. She curated and featured in the multidisciplinary event, which linked culture, environment and the community. She also co-curated and featured in ACE-funded B-Wing, Shepton Mallet Prison, a site-responsive project with 8 artists/writers and community events. She is currently working on an artist-led travelling project around South West UK - Inch by IN:CH, 2021. Commissions include a 4m hand woven canopy as a focal piece for Sarah Eberle’s Viking Cruises Mekong Garden, Chelsea Flower Show, 2016, which won gold and best artisan garden. Other awards include Round Lemon, ONE exhibition, first prize '21; Red Line Art Works Award, '20; Environmental Award, Devon Recycled Sculpture Trail ’14, Atkinson Gallery Summer Show, first prize ’11, and David Shepherd Foundation 3-d Wildlife Artist of the Year, ’09. A film about Fiona's work was commissioned by Art UK, in partnership with Culture Street & Royal Society of Sculptors in 2021. Fiona was Rep for Somerset Art Works, served on the Board of Trustees at Black Swan Arts, and is now on the BSA Programming Committee. www.fionacampbellart.co.uk