I've been on an interesting journey, hand finishing prints in increasingly detailed ways. I started with editions of 40 but am now reducing the editions to 15 for larger works which have had much more layering and are singular in all the added painting, collage etc. These will be available from RiseArt from next week and I will be adding to the portfolio regularly.

​These are some views of my artworks in the Mythical Journey Exhibition with Shoran Jiang. Comprehensive documentation will be posted shortly along with filmed views of the exhibition at UART Center, Jing'an, Shanghai. The exhibition runs until 21 November with a potential extension to the end of the month. To read the introduction for the exhibition written by Dr Joshua Gong - follow the link www.artzip.org/mythological-journey-a-dialogue-across-time-and-space

​慎余里石库门中，开启一场横跨东西方的神话艺术之旅
Where Shikumen Meets Myth: An East-West Art Odyssey in Shenyuli

海派风情建筑遇见当代神话演绎，采艺术中心呈现时空对话
Where Shanghainese-style Architecture Meets Contemporary Myth: UArt Center Presents a Dialogue Across Time

在苏州河畔的慎余里石库门建筑群中，采艺术中心（UArt Center）正如一颗璀璨的艺术明珠，承载着海派文化的深厚底蕴，见证着当代艺术的创新蜕变。而今，采艺术中心正迎来一场别开生面的展览——"神话之旅穿越时空的对话"。

I am delighted to announce that the prototype of  my project 'The Poetry Canopy' will be installed at Monaleen Primary School in Limerick this November and will be co-created with the teachers and children of the school. The Canopy will be suspended in the reception of the new building for what is the second largest primary school in Ireland.

It will feature the school motto in English and Gaelic 'ní neart go cur le chéile' (there is no strength without unity) which feels particularly appropriate for the times we're living in. 'The Poetry Canopy' is an immersive, site-specific artwork that transforms a shared space into a poetic and participatory environment. Designed to be  suspended indoors or outdoors the Canopy contains individually crafted letters made with wire, crocheted wool and other materials, of a chosen poem or text - in this case the school motto. The Canopy weaves together words, memory, and place, serving as both a welcoming gesture and a lasting connection to the school’s past.

This inaugural version of the Poetry Canopy will incorporate artefacts salvaged from the old school building—small architectural fragments, objects, and textures that carry the imprint of memory and community. Intertwined with these will be hand-crafted additions made from recycled and natural materials: shells, twigs, paper flowers, and locally found items. These elements will hang from the canopy, inviting students, staff, and visitors to engage with their environment in new and reflective ways.
​
As a fusion of poetry, sustainability, and community heritage, 'The Poetry Canopy' aims to foster a deeper sense of place and belonging. It offers a poetic framework through which children and adults alike can encounter the beauty of words, the significance of reuse, and the layered narratives that make up their shared space.



Ask ChatGPT

As I was making this artwork I thought a lot about the poem by Patrick Galvin - 'The Madwoman of Cork', remembering its impact on me when I first read it as a teenager. Living in Cork at the time when the city boatsed the longest building in Ireland on its outskirts, could be very troubling. The building was the 'asylum' a mental hospital for women and children, many times larger than the nearby hospital for men. This speaks volumes about the gender disparity in Ireland in the second half of the 20th century. Women and young girls could be locked away for having sexual relationships, getting pregnant, having an affair or just being a bit different. For us the students at art college in Cork, who literally had stones thrown at us for our let's say, atypical way of dressing, the poem described a reality not often recorded in local or national histories. Here is the poem now - it is worth reading.
​oday
Is the feast day of Saint Anne
Pray for me
I am the madwoman of Cork.

Yesterday
In Castle street
I saw two goblins at my feet
I saw a horse without a head
Carrying the dead
To the graveyard
Near Turner’s Cross.

I am the madwoman of Cork
No one talks to me.

When I walk in the rain
The children throw stones at me
Old men persecute me
And women close their doors.
When I die
Believe me
They’ll set me on fire.

I am the madwoman of Cork
I have no sense.

Sometimes
With an eagle in my brain
I can see a train
Crashing at the station
If I told people that
They’d choke me.
Then where would I be?

I am the madwoman of Cork
The people hate me.

When Canon Murphy died
I wept on his grave
That was twenty-five years ago.
When I saw him just now
In Dunbar Street
He had clay in his teeth
He blest me.

I am the madwoman of Cork
The clergy pity me.

I see death
In the branches of a tree
Birth in the feathers of a bird.
To see a child with one eye
Or a woman buried in ice
Is the worst thing
And cannot be imagined.

I am the madwoman of Cork
My mind fills me.

I should like to be young
To dress up in silk
And have nine children
I’d like to have red lips
But I’m eighty years old.
I have nothing
But a small house with no windows.

I am the madwoman of Cork
Go away from me.

And if I die now
Don’t touch me.
I want to sail in a long boat
From here to Roche’s Point
And there I will anoint
The sea
With oil of alabaster.

I am the madwoman of Cork
And today
Is the feast day of Saint Anne.
Feed me.

© 1973, Patrick Galvin
From: New And Selected Poems
Publisher: Cork University Press, Cork

I was delighted to be invited to join the 'Winter Menagerie' exhibition by Tondo Cosmic at 48 Aberfeldy St, London E14 from 28 November - 21 December  (open Thurs, Fri, Sat 12-5pm). Tondo Cosmic Projects was set up by artists Tamsin Morse and Jo Chate to promote conversation in interesting locations throughout London and the UK.

I'm showing Circe's Island # 2 - a hand finished giclée print (edition of 40). I created the work in VR using imported images and 3D models which I blended together - the head and shoulders are my own, a 3D model of a scan by VR artist Sean Rodrigo. The 'island' is a model of an actual island that I carved in polystyrene with artists Pamela Sullivan, Shoran Jiang, Marie Mairs and my assistant Terri Broughton for the Odyssey: Explorations exhibition at Tate Exchange Liverpool in 2019. Once the digital prints are made I paint additional details so each print is slightly different.

As always, I remain gripped by the Greek myths and I don't believe for one minute that Circe was heartbroken when Odysseus left her island - given that she had already turned some of his men into pigs, because they were behaving like pigs, I'm sure that she couldn't wait to see the back of him!

NB: I no longer use twitter/X as I don't think it is an appropriate platform anymore. I post regularly on Instagram @gunnfion and have just joined Blue Sky

A couple of months ago I started my series ‘Shouldering the Forest’ which challenges the way women are excluded and marginalised in virtually every aspect of society and the work draws on statistical graphs and highly detailed painting and collage. The series is inspired by a quip from an older white privileged English male creative who advised that I shouldn’t let people think I had a chip on my shoulder about being a woman artist from a working class Irish background! 

Anyway, this first painting collage looks at the statistics of maternal mortality during and after childbirth. This is an issue close to my heart having come close to death myself during a late miscarriage and witnessing my daughter's health complications during childbirth. The stratified landscape through the window is made up of the causes of maternal mortality - haemorrhage & maternal infections among the most significant. Historically this was also the case. Although the numbers are much lower this century than in previous times, there has been a significant rise in maternal mortality in the UK since 2021. 

Each case of maternal mortality will have catastrophic impact on their families and in turn impacts on our wider society.

Crossing Over # 1, 2 & 3 have been selected for 'The Path' Exhibition at Palazzo Pisani-Rivedin during the Venice Biennale 2024. The show opens on 3 September and runs until 3 November. I will be present at the Opening event on 3 September. If you would like to attend please contact me and I will make sure you get an invitation!