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Bridge of Memory
Fion Gunn, Medea's Exit 2019 handmade papers, acrylic, collage, gold leaf, 78x56cm
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“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” Marcus Tullius Cicero In this ongoing series of work I draw heavily on my own lived experience, growing up over the family antique shop, where as a small child I played with a a Qing figure of a scribe (this was the subject of my first observational drawing when I was about 5 years old. I played with a miniature Chinese shipping fleet, carved in ivory and laid out in the shop window and I watched the boats sail in and out of Cork harbour from Cobh and Kinsale or walked along the dockside visiting ships and submarines that came to Cork from France, Greece, Russia and beyond. I imagined a life of journeying and adventure, I was never going to be the one who stayed at home..... In 'Memories I have Desired' I create memories of idyllic childhood outings which never occurred, of course..... This is an ultimate wish fulfillment, visiting beautiful places with parents who are capable of getting you there without the dreadful fights, the car sickness, the bad food, the delayed departures and the arrival at destinations when the sun was already sinking along with the children's hearts! |