National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

When I visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich they were having an exhibition called the Northwest Passage: The Arctic Obsession. They had especially good artefacts from the failed Franklin polar expedition, where every single crew member died of starvation, lead poisoning and exposure. They had the snow goggles and the tins of food and all sorts of amazing things. There were also several very eerie paintings The national attention these explorers received back in Britain inspired artists tremendously. There were loads of moody paintings in cool colours illustrating the last moments of a frozen man’s life. Or a scene of a ship locked in the ice, its crew helpless. One of my favourite paintings, H.M.S. Terror in the Ice, is quite dark, the spikes of ice looming almost as high as the ship’s masts that it is holding hostage. The colours are dark, and the people look insignificant and the situation dire. While the subject matter doesn’t necessarily apply, the feeling of dread that these paintings inspire appeal to me greatly. I wish I had visited this exhibition prior to starting my Alternate Museum project. The carefully labelled discarded objects of long-dead men were absolutely fascinating, simply because of their connection with such a horrific tragedy.

Northwest Passage: The Arctic Obsession exhibition page can be found here.