The Catholic artist Fiona Campbell Hicks introduces an exhibition of iconography, photography and poetry at Farm Street Church, which explores a journey out of the trauma of the Northern Irish Troubles through her own work and that of her late mother, Margaret Campbell

Lake Galilee is the lowest-lying lake on earth, and it was there that Jesus began his active ministry. Perhaps that is why I feel called to photograph lakes. Bringing together people and wildlife in their calm abundance, lakes can be metaphors for truce. I was delighted when Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, of Farm Street Church in Mayfair, London, invited me to hold an exhibition exploring the complex artistic relationship between my mother and myself, our joyous love of colour, and the journey from trauma to peace. 

My family was a mixed Protestant-Catholic family, forced to leave Northern Ireland because of sectarian violence. Before we finally left, we were caught up in a bomb attack which left me traumatized both spiritually and emotionally. The poems and images in this exhibition bear witness to my long quest for recovery. Some of the first lakes I photographed were in Northern Ireland. 

Lough Beg is just 20 minutes from the home we left after our family factory was targeted during the Troubles. We never visited Lough Beg when I was a child—wandering about was dangerous. It was challenging even as an adult to go back in search of a sunset on Lough Beg; one poem describes how I crawled through thickets and pushed out into a golden scene of extraordinary radiance. The sun was just setting behind St Patrick’s Church with its Church of Ireland spire, golden on the water.

Nearby lies the largely forgotten, vast freshwater sea, Lough Neagh. The painterly, peaceful image is one of my favourites in the exhibition. Like many lakes it is struggling; its fish stocks are in danger of collapse because of sand-dredging for concrete, and fertiliser run-off from farmers’ fields. We need urgently to give up our dependence on concrete, leave margins around fields and stop tipping sewage into our freshwater bodies.       

When I go to a lake it’s usually very early in the morning or late in the evening, when the light becomes golden. It gives me an amazing sense of calm; there is always a decisive moment—a swan school progressing down the lake, or a double rainbow, or even a child making patterns with a stick. 

Lakes are places of tremendous poetry. They mirror the glorious beauty of the heavens, but they also have a deep dark zone—where the light cannot penetrate—that is completely lifeless. Sometimes monsters need to come out of the depths and be brought into the light of salvation. The poetry narrates my journey from trauma to grace. 

Perhaps the key poem in the exhibition is “Vision in the Library”, which narrates my sense of being pulled in two directions and choosing God above both. I suddenly felt illuminated by an interior sense of colour; I converted to Catholicism in my twenties, drawn both by the Holy Eucharist and Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Both my late mother, Margaret Campbell, an alumna of Chelsea Art School, and I were inspired by the colours of Bonnard and the visionary work of Odilon Redon. My mother’s work points towards the infinite mystery and generosity of divine love. She created paintings and in later life focused solely on painting egg-tempera icons.

The healing power of beauty is not a luxury, but a necessity. Among the first invited to the exhibition were some guests of Farm Street’s lunch service for the homeless. They came to a creative writing workshop inspired by the exhibition with Sarah de Nordwall’s “Company of Bards”. One homeless man explained, “I get so bored on the streets.” Their delight in the exhibition was palpable. 

I haven’t yet captured Galilee, but I hope to. Above all I pray this exhibition bears witness to the fact that at the heart of the gospels, alongside the Sea of Galilee, there is a metaphorical lake of expansive love. 

“A Conversation in Colour” is at Farm Street until 26th June, accessible through the Mount Street Jesuit Centre, W1K 3AH; Sarah de Nordwall will hold a Poetry Workshop there on 24th June. 10 per cent of all profits from the exhibition will go to the Klitschko Foundation for children from war-torn Ukraine.

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