So great to have an artwork on show in Beijing after a break of nearly 5 years. 'Remembering the Scribe' will be featured in the Beijing Contemporary Art Expo in May at National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Shichahai, Chao Yang Qu, Beijing 100600. This is a venue I first visited during my residency with RedGate Gallery Residency programme back in 2005. Maybe next year I can be there in person!
0 Comments
'TIMELINES' - a collaborative exhibition by Fion Gunn & Lina Osama at Bayt Al Sinnari, Cairo2/16/2024
I'm planning an installation 'Fleet' for this exhibition in October 2023 and I will also show other work including Black Box, 2022, mixed media 88 x 44 x 70cm (When open)
I found this box on the side of the road, unpainted and damaged. It had held things it was misshapen, it had the marks of life on it. I knew immediately that I had to make an ‘infinity scape’ inside it, to expand its internal dimensions and explore a complex narrative. The two coastlines are approximations of Dublin bay, the mouth of the Liffey and its port, and that of Liverpool, its docklands and the Mersey. My idea was to envisage sister coastlines and think about the connections running alongside the oppositional relationship between Britain and Ireland. Liverpool was the city to which so many Irish people came, fleeing poverty, famine, the shame of unwanted pregnancies and the lack of opportunities for women in general. However, many found the sense of displacement, the negative implications of being Irish in Britain ghettoised them emotionally and spiritually. As I created these coasts, war broke out in Ukraine and I felt impelled to address the wider implications of displacement, the legacies of conflict the relationship between the invaded and the invaders. and so the artwork evolved to include the traces of destruction, the tools of war and forced migration. The scale is simultaneously tiny and vast, intimate and universal. I want to tell these stories in a way that attracts the viewer to spend time looking and thinking while being respectful of peoples’ suffering and not gratuitously voyeuristic. You may not be able to come to my exhibition in Liverpool 30 July - 23 December however, if you’d like to see my 3D artworks in the flesh ‘virtually speaking’ download the app now and view them anywhere you like! The Arrivals/Departures app is now available FREE from: AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/.../arrivals-departures/id1622404266 or Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details This is an excerpt from the immersive installation (from the floor projection) which is a key part of the exhibition at Victoria Gallery & Museum - 30 July - 23 Dec 2022.
This is the first event in Gunn’s year-long residency with Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies which launched on the 31st of March 2022 at Victoria Gallery & Museum.
In conversation with Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, Gunn will present her film ‘Child of our Time’ – a tribute to Eavan Boland and display some mixed media artworks which address the experience of women at times of war and its aftermath – the collateral lives of collateral victims. Gunn and Benjamin, currently visiting professor at University of Liverpool, will explore their many touchpoints and their shared commitment to advocate for meaningful public engagement. Describing the impact of Boland’s writing on her own work Fion Gunn remarked “Eavan Boland, was an inspirational and under-recognised Irish poet. I first read her poem 'Child of our Time' as a 15 year old, after the terrible bombing in Dublin in which three babies were killed. It has stayed with me ever since.” On 9 June 2022 from 7pm-8.30pm at TR4, Building 502 Teaching Hub, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L69 3GR (map attached) Fion will explore different perspectives of war and conflict, as an artist, a curator, childhood experience and the legacy of family. The audience is warmly invited to join the conversation. Free tickets available on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/349928915807/ Date: Wednesday 15 June 2022 from 7pm-8.30pm
Venue: TR4, Building 502 Teaching Hub, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L69 3GR (map below) This is the first event in Gunn’s year-long residency with Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies which launched on the 31st of March 2022 at Victoria Gallery & Museum. Fion will present her film ‘Child of our Time’ – a tribute to Eavan Boland and display some mixed media artworks which address the experience of women at times of war and its aftermath – the collateral lives of collateral victims. Describing the impact of Boland’s writing on her own work Fion Gunn remarked “Eavan Boland, was an inspirational and under-recognised Irish poet. I first read her poem 'Child of our Time' as a 15 year old, after the terrible bombing in Dublin in which three babies were killed. It has stayed with me ever since.” Fion will explore different perspectives of war and conflict, as an artist, a curator, childhood experience and the legacy of family. The audience is warmly invited to join the conversation. Lifeboat is one of Gunn's 3D works which will be featured in the Arrivals/Departures exhibition at Victoria Gallery & Museum 30 July - 23 December this year has now been scanned by the Photogrammetry Team at the University of Liverpool. This allows the artist to incorporate the 3D models in the immersive video installation planned for the exhibition. It will also feature as a pop-up in the planned Augumented Reality art trail of her work throughout the city. |