by heather parnell

Without Borders hits Swansea

This is a wonderful project I’ve been working on with elysium gallery since 2019. Over three hundred participants connected to twenty two groups around the world have contributed to this 1SSUE inspired project. It has aimed to bring creative people together, to collaborate in an international touring exhibition of works on paper – a collection of artists pages.

The pages will be bound together to make a unique artists book, forwarded to each exhibition venue to be dismantled, displayed, and then reassembled before moving again to the next location. The exhibition will travel to Japan, Norway, USA, Venice, Canada, and back to Wales. At the end of the tour, the book will be housed in a special collections library.

The pages are also globally accessible here: https://issuu.com/elysiumgallery/docs/catalogue

Without Borders has been curated by Jonathan Powell, elysium gallery Director and Heather Parnell, artist, and co-editor of 1SSUE artist books.

The exhibition continues at elysium gallery, Swansea until August 28th.

by heather parnell

Around the House : elysium gallery

Around the House is crammed into a space 3.6 x 2 metres. It is a response to, and record of the space around my house; between home and the rest of the world during Covid–19 Lockdown. Thanks to photographer Dewi Tannatt Lloyd for rising to the challenge of recording the piece.

by heather parnell

Testing-Testing : Without Borders

I’ve been working with elysium gallery, Swansea for over a year, planning a group show together. Without Borders, which is now planned to open in July (fingers crossed) will have work from creative people associated with different groups in Wales and beyond. Each submission will be exhibited, included in an e-book and tour to different galleries in the UK, Europe, Japan, US and Canada. At the end of the tour it will be bound into a book and handed to a library for public viewing.

I’ve begun thinking about my pages – these are drawings based on my Pocket Remains project; objects collected in 2019, testing out compressed charcoal, hard and soft graphite, conte pencils and pastels.

The plan is to attach the tissue to the A3 page and fold it back in when the book is bound.

by heather parnell

1SSUE 46 : the Artists

I don’t usually do this, but for 1SSUE 46 I scanned one page from each of the contributors before compiling into books. Here they are – a great collection of images. They will be on show as part of the forthcoming exhibition Without Borders at Elysium gallery in Swansea from July 3rd (pandemic permitting….).


Thank you to all of the artists. Top left to bottom right: Alan Rogers, Chris Bird-Jones, Chris Nurse, France Woodley, Hazel Cardew, Heather Parnell, Masahiro Kawanaka, Matthew Fasone, Nic Pimlott, Paul Hazel, Peter Davies, Phil Mead, Richard Cox, Yumiko Inagaki.

by heather parnell

Pocket Remains 2020 – 1SSUE 46

In the tradition of our rotating editorship, I’ve been the editor for 1SSUE 46 artist book and these are my pages in sequence before they are distributed to the fifteen artists who have contributed.

My pages are another Pocket Remains series; drawings around the paper receipts, lists, tickets etc found in my pockets in 2020. I’ve been very conscious of edges, perimeters and borders during the pandemic; what forms insides and outsides.

The pages run in sequence from January to December, made with silver, gold and bronze sharpie pens.

by heather parnell

Quarantine quilt – Peaks and Troughs

As the surface of the silk fills with stitches each evening, I’ve begun to wonder what will happen when I stop stitching – what next – how will this be resolved ? One thing I’ve become aware of is the undulations of the quilt when I move it across my lap. The inner wadding gives it support, it holds its form creating plateaus and ravines.

There’s an intimacy, difficult to articulate, between me and the fabric I’m stitching as it settles on my legs and I slowly work my way with needle and thread up and down, in, out, in between. The action looks mindless but each stitch signifies a decision, a moment.

by heather parnell

Quarantine quilt – a stitch in time…

It’s hard to capture the entire surface of the quilt – as I step back, details diminish. It’s interesting how the photographic record has influenced my decisions; a way to look and revise.

Stitching between stitches has had quite an effect. Still, the image holds far less than the tactile object. Up close, the eye can roam and the hands can investigate rippling peaks and troughs.