Fionn Wilson

My painting of Mars rover ‘Perseverance’ looking longing towards Earth has travelled from Kyoto, Japan and is now in Venice (along with hundreds of other pieces of work from artists across the world) as part of the touring exhibition ‘Without Borders’. How lovely is that?

‘Perseverance’ was sent to Mars in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, and landed in February 2021. I was thinking about the concept of borders and how we’re not just part of planet Earth, we’re also part of a galaxy and the cosmos. Whilst our focus often became inwards during the pandemic years, with boundaries becoming more and more contained, I thought about how we can always look outwards towards the stars. Many people reported feelings of isolation and a wish for things to return to how they had been – with lockdown becoming a kind of existential crisis and a test of our perseverance. I imagined that the Mars rover may represent all of us – wanting to get back to our daily normalities – isolated, alone, exploring unchartered territory and longing to return.

Curated by Jonathan Powell (elysium gallery, Swansea) and Heather Parnell (artist and co-editor at 1SSUE), ‘Without Borders’ is an evolving exhibition that brings together 22 communities and nearly 300 artists from around the world. ‘Without Borders’ seeks to remove barriers, create alliances, and connect with neighbours. It aims to bring creative people together, to collaborate in an international touring exhibition of works on paper – a collection of artists’ pages.

At the end of each exhibition, the pages will be bound together to make a book and taken to another venue to be taken apart, displayed, and then reassembled before moving again to its next location.

At the end of the tour, the book will be placed in a special collections library. The pages are also accessible HERE.

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