WORKS by Irish artist Eve Parnell commemorating the centenaries of both the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme will be exhibited at Stormont this month.
A drawing by Parnell of St Brigid was presented as a gift from St Patrick’s Church in Belfast to Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall last year, when they visited the church, then the focus of controversial loyalist marches. She was commissioned to complete a number of pieces for Stormont shortly afterwards.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will open the exhibition, titled ‘Souls of the Slain’, on Monday.
“I’m very excited to have my work displayed at Stormont,” Parnell says. “I find that, as an artist, I prefer spaces that have a bit of history.”
The pencil-on-tissue-paper drawings being shown were inspired by the Easter Rising and the experiences of soldiers in the trenches during The First World War. Excerpts of poems from Wilfred Owen, Patrick Pearse, Thomas Hardy, and more of their contemporaries feature.
“The poems I have selected are anti-war,” she said. “There is an element of profit and exploitation in war – I want to show that that’s wrong.”
The lines of poetry are held in the beaks of ravens, which are one of the main motifs of the work.
“Ravens are very significant in the Bible, and other stories. I wanted to depict something that people here have in common,” the artist explained. “Raven’s are known for bringing messages and telling the future.”
:: Souls of the Slain runs from June 6 to 24.
