 The Madwoman of Cork, 2025, paper, acrylic, collage, gold leaf, molding paste, 76 x 57cm 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
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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
In this series ‘Restoration’ – I ‘restore’ images of damaged classical sculptures by painting in the missing bits – the arms, legs and noses - well, my imaginings of the missing bits, not the actual ones perhaps! Among the restored figures are those of a dancing Maenad, a Kore and a Tang dynasty sculpture of a woman while I have ‘dressed’ the photographs of young girls, one doing a cartwheel, the other shouting for joy, in gold – for they are treasures.
The ‘restored’ images are placed in a classical setting inspired by Ancient Greece and each canvas features an island - Ithaca – the metaphor for home and journey’s end. The birds flying across the canvasses are native to Greece and feature in its iconography both actual and mythological, they include owls (the symbol of Athens and the goddess Athena), peregrine falcons, seagulls, nightingales. Why the juxtaposition? For years I have continually used images of birds in my artwork for all kinds of reasons. Firstly, an emotional and poetic identification with the desire for freedom and the new perspectives which flight of all kinds offers. Secondly, because the symbolism of birds flying across the globe without borders parallels my ongoing focus on the continuous movement of peoples, cultures and ideas since the beginning of humanity. Finally, the idea of repairing the damage done to birdlife everywhere, the restoration of the environment - mirrors the idea that restoring culture, repairing the gaps in conventional history as well as culture can lead to a healthier human ecology. Researching the bird life of Greece and species decline due to environmental degradation – the impact of humanity on nature, has been eye-opening. There are valuable initiatives making a difference in monitoring and stopping further decline - reintroducing species which have died out such as: Balkan Anti-Poisoning Project, Hellenic Ornithological Society’s LIFE ElClimA Project, Vulture Conservation Society’s Energy Infrastructure Project, among others. In seeking to restore the historical iconography of women, to give those images agency, in a sense, I believe this is a powerful way to counteract the intense sexism and sidelining that women face across all cultures. It is a way to reintroduce their histories, to restore their cultural contributions, to celebrate other perspectives that women have of themselves and their place in the world. This is what has motivated me to ‘restore’ those classical sculptures which were defaced by Christian vandals, as they sought to supplant and destroy the cultures that had gone before them. Hence, all those sculptures with noses, ears cut off - I had never realised the extent of the destruction until I read Catherine Nixey’s book ‘The Darkening Age’ and now I’m on a mission!  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!
 Fion Gunn - Sunrise to Sunset, 2023, papers, acrylic, collage, thread, 102 x 66cm
This is one of the artworks I'm taking to Egypt in February/March when my work will be presented there. At a time when so many people around the globe are trying to escape conflict and poverty I want to keep telling the story of how human beings have always migrated and moved around the world. Birds have no borders but nature itself - maybe we should be think about that and be more accepting and welcoming of migration generally.  The Hidden City # 2, 2023 acrylic, handmade paper, collage, gold leaf, 78x56cm
I made this artwork as a woman living in London and thinking about women all over the world, our shared and our differing experiences: the doors that open for us and those that shut us out, the windows we look through to imagine our place in the wider world. I have included quotations from writers - Toni Morrison, Eavan Boland and Emily Dickinson as a tribute to the light they shed on our hidden city and the impact their writing has had on me. I still “dwell in possibility”  I created this short film to commemorate the baby I lost in 1994.
It is my way to accept grief and transform it, a visual poem about lost potentials. Loss & Gain has been made during my residency at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool 2022-23. It is a digital collage which combines film created in VR with film by the artist along with overlays, footage & 3D models from other sources. When I presented the film at University of Liverpool on 1 December I did so in the context of a workshop about how art and the rituals we create can help us to accept grief and loss. It was a meaningful event and I am very grateful for the responses of all those who attended. I hope that what we shared will impact us all positively as we continue in our lives. Visitors of all ages have been truly immersed in my Arrivals/Departures installation at the exhibition of the same name @ Victoria Gallery & Museum Liverpool! It has been so rewarding for me as an artist to witness such a great response. Last Friday Colm Brophy, Minister for Overseas Development & Diaspora, Ireland visited the exhibition and as he sat fascinated in the space declared that it was 'magical!'
 A Tale of Two Cities 2022, canvas, acrylic, collage, gold & silver leaf, 190 x 300cm
Since showing work at Tate Liverpool in 2019 and having some time to explore the city, meet people and make connections here, I have thought a lot about the similarities and differences, the shared history and mirrored perspectives of Dublin and Liverpool. In these panels, the cities, their rivers, architecture, cultures and histories face each other. There is a porous boundary and stories that need telling. Nature however, moves to and fro, birds, fish and seals fly, swim and breed between the coastlines, these migrations do not ask permission and do not discriminate it is the ebb and flow of a shared ecology. The mix of peoples, communities and cultures born of empire and exploitation is now the lifeblood of these cities and their hinterlands. |
AuthorFion Gunn is a London based visual artist with an international multi-media practice. Archives
May 2025
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