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In this ongoing body of work, artist Fion Gunn draws together several themes which have underpinned her artistic practice. She contemplates the movement of peoples across our planet, reflecting not just her ancestors’ and her own experience but encompassing the lived experience of all migrants both contemporaneously and historically. The story of the silk roads, spice routes, flotillas of trade and ideas is painted, stitched, collaged and built into these artworks.
Gunn revisits her childhood fascination with tales of exploration, of adventure and all too often, exploitation - Marco Polo, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe - intrigued by the ethical/moral decisions made by the heroes/ villains and the complex investigations of human morality made by Joseph Conrad in Lord Jim and the Heart of Darkness. The circular ‘window’ motif which recurs in her work is both a porthole into seascapes and a representation of the cycle of life, a cycle of evolving eras. In each window a new world is discovered and an old world remembered. The series continues in Gunn's VR creations because they represent her own exploration of immersive technologies. |
Remembering the Scribe 2017, paper,canvas,acrylic, collage, 57x57cm
Eurydice and the City of the Dead, 2018,
​handmade paper, acrylic, collage 76 x 58cm
 Agamemnon Waiting 2018, handmade paper, acrylic, collage, 78x56cm
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Hector Preparing, handmade papers, acrylic, collage, gold leaf,80x57cm
Medea's Exit 2019 handmade papers, acrylic, collage, gold leaf, 78x56cm
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In this series of work I am revisiting ideas that I've had since I was a child - a connection I felt with ancient Greek myths. These were stories which gave me nightmares but also rang true even in my childish experience. Now being much older I am reflecting on the Odyssey as a description of a hard journey home - what does that mean? the journey to our first perception of the self, our first wounds and hurts, maybe our first experience of joy and curiosity. I still feel the horror of Electra's predicament and have learnt the grief of Hecabe's story albeit in a less extreme way than so many. In the coming years I will add to this gallery as I address each drama in turn and face up to its relevance in my own life as an artist, a woman and an outsider. Often the artworks reference James Joyce's Ulysses adding a particularly Irish dimension to my interpretation of the Greek myths. Hecabe and her Women Hecabe, queen of Troy lost all her children in the Trojan war and is synonymous with the most terrible grief and loss. Yet, people do continue to live after tragedy, life is changed but still goes on. In James Joyce's 'Ulysses' the character Blum reflects on death, the loss of a son yet in the end embraces ‘warm fullblooded life’. The collaged image I have used is from heart-breaking photo of a Bosnian woman at the graveside of her sons. So little has changed Eurydice and the City of the Dead When Molly Bloom lies in bed contemplating her husband’s proposal of marriage it made me think about the death of love; how marriage for so many women was and is an institution that disempowers them and deadens their souls. Lilies are flowers of mourning. The City of the Dead to which Eurydice is consigned is filled with towers, minarets and domes which evoke the many religious systems that have conspired against the rights of women as human beings. Penelope’s husband came back to her whereas Eurydice’s husband who came to rescue her, did not follow the instructions he was given and she was lost to the underworld…. Growing up in Cork, Ireland in the 60's & 70's I was aware from an early age of how marriage signified the end of freedom and the death of self. I am amazed that in the end I did get married and that it has been happy. Agamemnon Waiting In this work Agamemnon, who had sacrificed his daughter to the gods so that his ship could sail away from Troy, awaits his death at the hands of his wife. His wife was the mother of the daughter he killed. The themes of betrayal, guilt, revulsion and consequences are all consuming. It is a dreadful tale of how daughters have been regarded as expendable and lesser. I was the eldest daughter in my family and I was never good enough, never the son. I think in later life my father reassessed this - he apologised to me for how he had treated me and unlike Iphigenia - I was able to move on. Hector Preparing When I started this work, a friend posed for me, he had a certain physical bravado and posturing that conjured the 'warrior' preparing for conflict, the integrity of a body which has not yet been dragged by the heels by a chariot. The classical beauty of Greek sculpture stands at such odds with the impact of war on the human body - there is a profound cognitive dissonance in this, a dreadful and profoundly emotional contradiction. Hector with his helmets and warrior statuary, male figures that intimidate and female ones that pressurise in other ways is a solitary and doomed figure. At a time when war once again threatens the lands of Europe, and Putin's push to rebuild the empire of Russia is a threat to everyone, we need to step back and re-evaluate the discourse around sacrifice, the bravery and deaths of soldiers, the collateral destruction of women and children. Escalating, brutalising violence. This is the story of the Trojan war and every war that has ever been. Medea's Exit This is a reworking of the original painting I made in 1994 - I started it at a time of huge emotional and life-threatening upheaval. Medea is the name I gave my eldest daughter because I felt it was time to rehabilitate this lovely name. Medea means 'wise woman' and that is something to celebrate. The Medea of myth, who helped Jason to steal the golden fleece, who enabled him to become king, was then betrayed by him . She knew that once her husband Jason married a second wife, their sons would be forfeit - a recurring pattern in all polygamous rule. It was a matter of time before the second wife or her children would exile or kill the children of Medea. Unlucky second wife burnt to death in the bridal robes sent to her by Medea - a scenario about which many deserted first wives may fantasise.... . Medea goes further. This mother, puts her children to sleep so they do not suffer and then kills them, she kills them in an act of revenge against her husband - it is an unbearable thing to contemplate and yet family courts are full of cases which echo these sentiments in frightening ways. |
