 'My dreams are all my own' Fion Gunn 2021, acrylic, canvass, collage, gold leaf, 100 x 80cm This artwork is my personal commemoration of the life and work of Mary Wollstonecraft. A film about the making of the piece will be posted on YouTube tomorrow.
« Mary Wollstonecraft was a renowned writer and poet, however her role as an activist should not be overlooked. Although she would not have called herself an activist, her passion and involvement in educating women, particularly young women, was transformative. She understood of course, the importance of education in and of itself, but she also saw it as vital for women’s emancipation and intrinsic to women’s ability to have agency of themselves. This in the 1700s was not part of mainstream thinking. Wollstonecraft paved the way for centuries of other inspirational women to make their mark. « Phaedra Gunn, 2021
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 'The Coming Year' Fion Gunn 2021, acrylic, handmade papers, collage, gold leaf, 81 x 50cm I managed to finish this work today after a journey that spans more than 25 years. I began painting the bull back in the early 1990s when I began my Greek Cycle but put it aside for a long time because I felt it was a long way from being finished. Back in October 2020 I took it out again to review it - in the light of the upcoming Year of the Ox and things began to fall into place. In making it, I have tried to embody my wishes for a year of energy and flexibility and that the predatory wings of 2020 should fly past us.
'Sheltering World’ project has won an award from Arts Council England! 'Sheltering World' an arts collaboration between Terri Broughton, Eliza Cooey, Tyson Richards and myself to make a digital artwork highlighting the issue of homelessness will be launched online on 18 December so watch this space! Here’s the trailer https://youtu.be/A5SeV3dfCxI  Dublin Bay Triptych and The Dream of Zheng He have been collected by MAHA Beijing through Peking Arts Associates  Fion Gunn - Dublin Bay Triptych, 2018, canvas, acrylic, collage,180x100cm  Fion Gunn - The Dream of Zhang He, 2017, paper, acrylic,collage,190x57cm
2020 - the year of everything being on hold! All exhibition plans for Paris and China are postponed. However, in terms of making new work it's an opportunity to be embraced. Here is 'Venice' the first panel of a planned five which will make up an artwork entitled 'Port'. When I was working on this in December - February the tragic fate of Venice in the Corona Virus narrative was beginning to unfold. Like all of those who love the city, I feel desperate to hear of its recovery and to visit it again in 2021.   “The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences” Dune - Frank Herbert Participating artists: Mei-Tsen Chen (Taïwan/France) Inés Diarte (France/Espagne), Fion Gunn (Irlande/UK), Natacha Ivaldi (France/Venezuela), Jérémy Louvencourt (France), Nacoca Ko (US/Suisse), Niki Neuts (France), Virginie Rochetti (France), Martial Verdier (France) Founding member Chen Mei-Tsen describes WAFERS thus “We are a group of international artists who live and work in a fragile world. We are practitioners who work across a wide range of media and platforms to express a convergent diversity – a shared consciousness.” This is the first exhibition for the group who are passionate about raising environmental awareness and opening an inclusive discourse around important current, global issues. As artists they are committed to responding must imaginatively to environmental crises in order to mediate how these problems are perceived by the wider public. They don’t want to shout down the sceptics of climate change and critics of human migration, better to reach out and and bring them on board. Irish artist Fion Gunn whose work is inspired by the movement of peoples, joined the group at its inception, is concerned that “in our media rich world, the dramas of refugees and immigrants are played out before an audience. On the one hand this means that we are more informed about what is happening globally, on the other hand, if we are not careful, these often, tragic tales are turned into a voyeuristic entertainment.” 3 Previews: Tuesday 17, 24, 31 March 2020 at 6-10 pm Opening Times: from 16 March to 5 April at 3-7 pm Address: Villa des Arts – 15, rue Hégésippe Moreau 75018 Paris Further information from: meitsen_chen@wafers.world High res images available on request Instagram @leswafers   * Film of Artists' discussion will be posted shortly on Youtube * Article by Verity Babbs https://artplugged.co.uk/young-gunn-fion-gunn-and-arts-misogynageism-problem/   So as my solo show looms closer I am in the process of tying up all the threads of the Odyssey: Explorations project with Tate Liverpool - I live in a constant state of overlap! Yesterday I uploaded the documentary film which gives an overview of the whole project and I hope that will make sense... I think that I must have a deep seated urge towards complexity. So the project encompassed community workshops in London and Liverpool, the interactive exhibition art Tate Exchange Liverpool; this included the creation of an 'island' made by the participating artists, collateral events such as discussions about the theme of Odyssey from health, literary and evolutionary perspectives, VR training for the participating artists, volunteers, the creation of my pathway digital artwork in VR and the showcase exhibition at Tate in August. God, I feel tired even listing all the elements.....but it was a total buzz. The digital installation will be included in my solo show at Candid Arts Trust which opens on 6 November. The links below will take you to the documentary film about the project and to the film of the digital installation with soundtrack by Alan Stones.
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