The Steven Campbell Trust were delighted to attend the VIP Directors private preview event at Glasgow School of Art on Thursday 1st June. It is always such a pleasure visiting GSA each year and seeing such a huge selection of talented artists. We would like to thank GSA for extending this invitation which was greatly appreciated, particularly Kirsty L. Barr, Head of Communications, The Glasgow School of Art.
Each year we attend the Degree Show to make our annual award of The Hunt Medal, to an artist who we believe demonstrates poetic creativity in their work. After much discussion on the exciting work on show, we were unanimous in our appreciation of the work of Eva M.V. Hewitt and are delighted to announce that Eva is the 2023 recipient of our Hunt Medal award. Everyone from the Trust would like to wish Eva much success in her future career.
“It was a real pleasure to meet everyone on Thursday afternoon. I am absolutely delighted to be the recipient of the Hunt Medal and still cannot quite believe it!! I feel very honoured to take my place among such illustrious previous award winners. Thank you again for such a fantastic opportunity!” – Eva M.V. Hewitt.
Eva M.V. Hewitt is a Scottish Fine Artist currently living and working in Glasgow.
Hewitt’s figurative depictions of the day to day capture the ephemeral beauty of the human condition. Articulating the inspiring qualities of the earthly and the ethereal, her paintings reflect the intersection of contemporary culture blended with traditional and Catholic iconography. Hewitt’s work expresses the heavenly, earthly, and worldly beauty of the everyday life, instilling a sense of timeless magic into all who encounter it. Through her use of figuration and intricate detail, Hewitt’s art celebrates the beauty of the divine at work within the quotidian.
In the Creative Maelstrom that is the GSA Degree Show, success can be measured in the ability of a piece of work to grab and hold our attention above the clamour all around and so it was with the work of our Hunt Medal winner for 2022, Lily Krempel.
Our medal is awarded for ‘Poetic Creativity’ so the artist needs to have created work which speaks to that criterion, not in a literal sense but in the emotional connection made between the viewer and the work.
‘ Fire Dials’ is both sculpture and performance and when viewed in person connects viewer and piece in a sensory way that transcends time and place making it almost primeval.
Lily has also been a recipient of the RSA John Kinross Scholarship, to spend a period of 6 to 12 weeks in Florence to research and develop her practice. She has also been selected as one of the RSA ‘New Contemporaries’.
We at the Trust are delighted to be able to contribute to the launch of this emerging artists career.
She’s definitely one to watch!
Carol Campbell, June 2022
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Lily Krempel, Statement:
My degree show space told the story of a site-specific work.
In the absence of ritual, I formed my own. A walk following a map of specific moments and sites overlaid on new land, geometrically plotted, measured by the degrees of my compass and by my footsteps. Wearing my metal structure flat-packed and fitted upon my back, I carried the sculptures. At the last site, I laid down a fire.
The space holds the remnants of the work, sculptural props for a happening; the fire-dials upon their structure, charred Scots pine and silver birch, a spider’s web, my backpack with spiked feet for their structure, a map with compass readings and footsteps and a video filmed at Lochan Mor, ‘Lily Loch’ made with the help of my mum, Martha.
Fire Dials
The dials are so named as they exist as a piece of equipment for rotation. A traditional dial is spun on a telephone or tuned to select a radio frequency or read to tell the time. The fire-dials revolve as they trace the fire; its size, the direction of wind current, the rising temperature of airflow.
In the making of these ‘fire-dials’ I used the compasses and measuring tools that belonged to a beloved friend who passed away. The tools with which we work, give rise to the art. Cut from steel sheets, the shapes have become weaponry designed to slice through darkness.
The sensation of darkness is tangible in the body. Grief, in its many forms can feel like this. A sense of bearing the weight of an unshifting shadow.
I am inspired by memories of my grandmothers Christmas pyramid candle ornaments. The origin of the delicate kinetic candle decoration dates back to the Middle Ages. It was traditional in southern and western Europe to bring evergreen branches, into the home and hang them in order to ward off gloomy, sullen feelings through the dark and cold winter months. In northern and eastern Europe traditional candles were used to achieve this goal. The Christmas pyramid unified these two traditions, consisting of handcrafted kinetic elements hanging over a network of candles. A symbol of Winter celebration; a vessel for uplifting the spirits.
Backpack
To aid the mobility of my work, I designed and built it to be flat-packed. In order to carry my metalworks across site, I constructed a frame from ash to wear upon my back with small steel fittings, ash dowels and specifically sized holes in the wood to hold and piece together the metal structure in their separate balanced parts. It was important to me, that I carry the work, the weight of it, the movement of it. I was inspired by the functionality of timber structures and baskets worn by people of mountain communities across the world used to carry belongings and food to their locality.
Part of my installation included a video work, accessible online following this link:
1. Map with compass readings and footsteps’ steel, acrylic paint. 86.5x62cm, in view upon entrance of my degree show space.
2. Map with compass readings and footsteps’ steel, acrylic paint. 86.5x62cm, 2022.
3. Fire-dials upon structure’ steel, bronze, charred Scots pine, silver birch and spider’s web. 218x200cm, positioned centrally in the space,
4. A view of the ‘Fire-dials’ from below.
5. A recreation of the fire at Lochan mor beneath the structure of ‘fire-dials’, charred Scots pine and silver birch.
6. Backpack, with spiked feet for structure, ash, steel, nickel. 173x37x4.7cm. 2022.
7. Backpack, with spiked feet for structure, ash, steel, nickel. 173x37x4.7cm. 2022.
8. A close up of the backpack steel fittings designed to fit the flatpack rods and legs of the structure and the rectangular space for the straps to feed through attaching the pack to my back.
9. Video at Lochan Mor, ‘Lily Loch’ Made with the help of my mum, Martha. The video was projected onto a screen made to fit the space. 118x200cm. 2022.
10. View of my degree show space, backpack and projected video through the rods of the fire-dial structure.
As Directors of the Steven Campbell Trust we take great pleasure in announcing that our prize for ‘Poetic Creativity’ demonstrated in the work of a graduating student of Fine Art has been awarded this year to Ella Josephine Campbell of FAP for her film Wood Sprite and her Human Cave Installation.
The award was made by a unanimous decision after careful scrutiny of all Fine Art practices in a year which saw work of an exceptionally high standard being considered.
We felt Ella’s work demonstrated not only craftsmanship but the highest level of artistic integrity.
‘I was completely drawn into the film and loved her sound too’ ‘I loved Ella Campbell’s film and stills, really strong work’ ‘My stand out was Ella Campbell!’ ‘The skill of the puppetry and movement sequences with the life size puppet was sensitive and moving’
These were just a few of our Directors comments.
We are delighted with our choice and congratulate Ella and wish her well for the future.
Carol Campbell, The Steven Campbell Trust, June 2021
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Statement from Ella Josephine Campbell, June 2021:
Such a prestigious award and recognition is so motivational for me in this key transition out of Art school, trying to find my place in a challenging art world, and finding the courage to keep on sharing and disseminating my practice through vulnerable times.
We are delighted to announce that this year’s Steven Campbell Trust Hunt Medal Recipient is Tess Wood, for her most recent work ‘Cannot Contain’, which is showing at the Glasgow School of Art 2019 Degree Show.
This work is comprised of a specific, architecturally designed performance space and a durational live performance piece.
The piece looks to reclaim representations of power that are commonly found in depictions of the male body within popular culture. Tess Wood seeks to reframe iconic sports and music imagery within her practice. Regressive feedback loops, repetitive sounds and movements are central to the work.
Through the interplay of props and body, confined intimacy and on-display vulnerability, Tess Wood embodies the frustrations felt at being confined within a set of societal codes and regulations relating to gender expression.
We would also like to thank staff from GSA for their assistance and support and look forward to continuing our ongoing relationship.
Finally we would like to extend our warm congratulations to Tess and wish her a successful career.
The Steven Campbell Trust are delighted to announce that the 2018 recipient of the Hunt Medal for poetic creativity, is artist Nancy Dewhurst, Sculpture & Environmental Art Department, GSA, for her beautiful and evocative work ‘ Clepsydra’.
Nancy’s current artistic practice is focussed towards ‘time’ and different notions of this – geological time, ancient time, time dictated by labour, and punctuated by play. More broadly, her work is about systems (of which ‘time’ is one).
Trust directors had a wonderful afternoon at GSA, Trongate, looking at all Fine Art graduates’ work and having many illuminating and enriching conversations, which gave us much to consider. We were grateful for the invaluable assistance of Claire Paterson, GSA graduate and recent Steven Campbell Trust and Saltire Society New York Scholarship recipient, and our first Hunt Medal award winner in 2008. Many thanks also to Claire’s partner Brian McCluskey, writer and painter, who offered valuable insight and support.
We would also like to thank staff from GSA, particularly Fiona Robertson and John Quinn for their assistance and support and look forward to continuing our ongoing relationship.
Finally we would like to extend our warm congratulations to Nancy and wish her a successful and enriching career.
We are delighted to announce that this years winner of the Hunt Medal is performance artist Tamara MacArthur, Glasgow School of Art.
The Trust finances the annual Steven Campbell Hunt Medal for a student artist of great promise and talent at the Glasgow Art School. This is open to application and nomination for the students who display Poetic Creativity and the recipients are chosen by Carol Campbell, Glasgow School of Art Staff and nominees of the Trustees and Advisors to the Trust.
We wish Tamara a successful career and hope she is pleased to join a strong line of previous recipients of our award.
Felix Carr, Winner of Steven Campbell Trust, Hunt Medal 2016
Statement from Carol Campbell:
“My fellow Directors of the Trust and I had a thoroughly enjoyable visit to the GSA City nights preview last Thursday (16th June) with a view to selecting our Hunt medal winner for this year.
As GSA guidelines require that the prizes given should have a criterion, the selection made by myself and the family was that of ‘Poetic Creativity’ as we felt this encompassed everything that Steven stood for in terms of his Art.
The standard was high and debate was fierce between the Directors but there was a coming together around the work of our choice for 2016 Felix Carr.
Felix’s images were at the forefront of several of our minds during the selection process. We loved the energy, the risk taking and the bravura. So in the end the decision making process was much easier than we had anticipated. We felt we had found a worthy winner in Felix and I am personally delighted to see him awarded the Hunt Medal for 2016.”
To see more of Felix Carr’s work, follow this link
Quote from Carol Campbell, Chair of The Steven Campbell Trust and widow of the artist:
‘It was one of those moments when you just ‘know’ that it’s right. Our prize is for Poetic Creativity and Leo’s paintings resonated before we even spoke with him.
We never ask for any background information before judging, preferring to let the work speak as it would in a gallery setting but, decision made, it always pleases Sandy Moffat (former Head of Fine Art, GSA) and I to have our hunches confirmed as regards committment, ideas etc.
Leo came through with flying colours as a young man of passion and integrity with strong ideas and an amazing artistic journey ahead. We at the Steven Campbell Trust wish him well and shall watch his progress with great interest.’
Quote from Leo Arnold on receiving this award:
‘As an aspiring painter I was very flattered to discover that I had won a prize that related to Steven Campbell who was, of course, an important and influential painter from Glasgow himself.
As a young artist Campbell was notoriously daring. He took risks to cement a path that made him stand out and led him to make exceptional work and so I feel very lucky to receive this award as a young artist and a painter too.
I will keep his example in mind as I try to fulfil my artistic ambitions.’
The Steven Campbell Trust 