A LONG SHADOW

• The exhibition, A Long Shadow, marks the three year tenure by Helen as the museum’s artist in residence

An exhibition of three dimensional artwork that challenges visitors to rethink events in our shared history is to be launched by The National Museum of the Royal Navy’s (NMRN) artist in residence Helen Snell.

The exhibition, titled A Long Shadow, opens at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard from November 15 to January 29, 2017 and marks the culmination of a three-year tenure by Helen as inaugural artist in residence at The NMRN.

Helen uses laser cutting and digital media to create her work, which includes wall reliefs in paper, large scale steel sculpture and site specific installation, laser cut digitally printed fabrics, 3D printed costume and body sculpture.

Helen said: “I have felt compelled to look behind the sets, props and costumes of ‘the theatre of war’ and to question the sometimes irreconcilable contradictions that shape the call of duty.

“The works in this exhibition, and some of the artefacts and images that have inspired them, tell tales of exploration and exploitation, survival and courage, the quest for knowledge in hostile and extreme environments and the burden of guilt.”

A Long Shadow references the legacy of early explorers and how the consequences of their actions have, Helen says, inadvertently spawned our current global conflicts.

The works will go on display in The National Museum of the Royal Navy Portsmouth.

Helen added: “I hope that the exhibition will prompt visitors to reconsider events in our shared history, and appreciate the sometimes unfathomable inconsistencies, contradictions, complexities and ambiguities in times of peace and war.

“Furthermore I would like visitors to share my delight in the possibilities of new digital fabrication techniques.

The exhibition is open daily between 10am and 5pm.

Entry to the exhibition is free with a valid museum ticket. For more information call 023 9272 7582

For more information on Helen Snell and her work: www.axisweb.org/p/helensnell

For more information visit http://www.nmrn.org.uk/news-events/nmrn-blog/exhibition-new-laser-cut-works-artist-residence-launch-national-museum-royal