Parry & Glynn's 'Tunnel Under the Venn Diagram' appears in an international exhibition of work by Welsh surrealists and their associates curated by poet David Greenslade at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed Campus 19 Feb - 19 Apr 2018.  'Gogoneddus Ych-a-Fi / Glorious Disgust' includes work by Hervé Constant, Desmond Morris, Sarah Rhys, Dagmar Štěpánková, John Welson and others. Private view with artists Friday 23 March 3-6pm.

The Venn Diagram was introduced by the philosopher John Venn in 1880, and the traditional diagram shows common areas between two propositions as overlapping. This approach indicates material and pragmatic approaches to thinking and culture, but the hitherto undiscovered Tunnel Under the Venn Diagram now links the centre of each area directly to other surrounding propositions in a dialectic and relational way. Greater potential is uncovered.

On the discovery of this tunnel the artists declared a conversational excursion on 19th and 20th century British attitudes to the philosophy of relationship and the nature of being human, calling into being the University of Wednesdays.

The founding of this university-between-all-the-others is recounted in a new pamphlet, 'Twenty-first Century Education - a Retrospective' by Chris Glynn. The University of Wednesdays and its tunnels offer the idea that people participate in each other, in society and in the world at a very deep level, beneath pragmatic and material concerns, and that the middle of the week is an ideal starting place for informal discussion. Institutions, bodies and individuals can benefit from thinking and reading about the University of Wednesdays and the Tunnel Under the Venn Diagram when communicating.

Parry and Glynn's 3D model of the tunnel was installed last summer at Newport Cathedral as part of 'In Their Footsteps', a celebration of the Chartists' legacy. 

The contribution of working people from South Wales to the development of British democracy has been celebrated in Newport by new art work commissioned to mark the 1839 Newport Chartist Uprising, and its continued relevance today.

The work included an installation in Newport Cathedral 'what they were about, we are about' containing one thousand small clay shoes, representing the people who marched on Newport in November 1839, demanding the right to vote in parliamentary elections. More than 20 demonstrators died when troops fired on the protestors from the Westgate Hotel, in the city centre.

The project entitled In Their Footsteps – loss and contribution was made possible with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (Wales) and was a commission from Newport City Council and The Chartist Commission.

Parry&Glynn undertook the work with Newport based journalist and community organiser Dylan Moore, educator George Gumisiriza, and the ceramicist Ned Heywood. 

One thousand small shoes were made by the artists and community groups, and the shoes installed in a large section of Newport Cathedral.  The shoes and boots were shown marching over Government departments in Whitehall, London which includes the Office of the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, on the way to the Houses of Parliament. 22 small pairs of boots and shoes were painted red, reflecting the people who died in the 1839 march when soldiers opened fire on the crowd in the centre of Newport. 

A new permanent sculpture, The Chartist Milestone, was placed in Westgate Square by the artists, together with a large pair of 19th century workman's boots on display inside a gateway to the Cathedral.  These illustrate the story of the 1839 Newport Chartist march and show the common practice of voting today.  'Y Ffrind/The Friend - A New Newspaper for Wales and Its Neighbours' provides historical, social and philosophical context to the project. 

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15298118.Tiny_shoes_marking_Chartist_uprising_unveiled_in_Newport/?ref=mrb&lp=10

https://chrisglynn123.com/2017/05/21/newport-chartist-installations/

Parry & Glynn led three events at the 2016 Hay Festival, including a 16 mile walk over the Black Mountains in search of missing elements of Coleridge in British culture.

Hay Festival & Coleridge in Wales 2016

A ten day public installation and sea-spectacle, involving hundreds of community participants and seen by thousands of people, to celebrate the beginning of the Coleridge in Wales festival. A recreation of the ghost ship from Coleridge’s poem ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ dressed by students from Cardiff School of Art & Design sailed into Cardiff, Penarth, Barry and Swansea sparking a series of artistic and community events exploring relationship, landscape and experience.

http://coleridgefestival.org/event/5/the-return-of-the-ancient-mariner

Exploratory walk along the edge of the River Providence to accompany the delivery of an undeliverable academic paper ‘Book of Common Affirmations’ at the international Illustration Research conference at Rhode Island School of Design, USA Providence ‘The Illustrator as Public Intellectual’.

http://ccqmagazine.com/walk-on-the-edge-of-providence-chris-glynn-richard-parry/