Naval history interpreted by alumna artist

“It is a great privilege to be artist in residence at the National Museum of the Royal Navy and to have access to the extraordinary archives across all of the museums,” she said. “With each new visit I get a growing sense of the vast breadth of the collections that chart such pivotal and diverse moments in our history. Each visit is a journey in its own right. I have been very challenged, humbled and inspired by the things I have seen so far.

“I have found the collections at Explosion to be some of the most demanding and sobering of all the museums. It is bewildering to be faced with so much hardware that has been designed, in methodical and chilling detail, to cause death and destruction. Politics aside, these objects ultimately make us question how and why our powers of empathy fail. They symbolise the breakdown of complex systems of communication and diplomacy, which leads to violent conflict. We are reminded of our inadequacies as human beings.”

Helen (French and Fine Art 1986) was first commissioned to produce work for New Found Treasures, an exhibition which celebrated the centenary of the opening of the Museum in 1911. Following a period of self- directed research, Helen was invited to be the inaugural artist in residence from 2013 until 2015.‌

The exhibition is held in the Explosion Museum in Gosport, Hampshire until Friday 31 October. http://www.explosion.org.uk/.

Further information on Helen’s work can be found on her website. http://www.axisweb.org/p/helensnell

Courtesy of British Forces News pictures