Woven by palms and palm fronds this chair captures two universal phenomena. That of weaving found throughout the world’s cultures and that of the white plastic bucket chair. Through this object, craft is contrasted by mass production. These global facets become personal through the artist. The Borassus flabellifer palm fronds were harvested in the Kenyan Coastal region of Kwale. Fiona Spent time there with the local crafts people learning the basic braid techniques which is used throughout this sculpture. The plastic bucket chair is an object of globalisation that Fiona has been interested in since 2017. The chair which forms the central structure sat in Fiona’s Edinburgh Garden. Both these gatherings show how Fiona is questioning the concept of local and global. In this sculpture the combination of the two represents Fiona’s practice of weaving cultures, materials and narratives from her migratory life.
Fiona is Kenyan, Scottish, and Danish. She is currently in her final year of the 5 year MAFA program at Edinburgh Collage of Art focusing on sustainable sculpture. Through simultaneously studying History of art and art practice Fiona has honed her research area towards ecocritical contemporary art. Her Essay on Katie Paterson’s Future Library was awarded the 2023 Cousins Essay Prize.
Fiona received the Eduardo Paolozzi travel grant in 2022, using it to journey between Portpatrick, Scotland and Aarhus, Denmark (the homes of her grandmothers) and to Documenta 15, the Venice Biennale and Puglia for a festival of agriculture, art and community. Each day she collected a soil sample and posted it back to ECA along with remnants and thoughts of travel.
Fiona teaches art to children at the Art Club, Edinburgh. Prior to ECA Fiona Attended Leith School of Art and gained a foundation in Painting and an admiration for the Edinburgh art community.
Fiona draws rich inspiration from ecosystems both human and environmental, defining her works as collaborative endeavours with the environment. Specifically, her work aims to capture how ecology can hold both fact and fiction. How land, vegetation or weather can hold feelings, metaphor and narrative. Fiona makes artworks using the natural material of a place, both to locate the work and to collaborate with it. This takes the form of making on location or gathering material to later transform into sculptures.
Fiona's dispersed childhood, of play and journeying has fostered a creative practice driven by curiosity, collaboration and imagination envisioned through ecology. In collaborating with her surroundings she fosters a connection with both the people of that place and the environment itself. She is sowing seeds and taking root in a place, as a counter to her migratory childhood.
Each of Fiona's artworks holds care and thought in how and why they are made. As she takes time to weave, sculpt or paint all to instil a sense of hope and joy. Fundamentally Fiona's artwork intends to tell stories and open exchanges about our environments.