There was high excitement in Bristol’s Mount Without as curator, Lucy Wray, led the launch of the Mariners exhibition: Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports.
The exhibition is the final, flagship event for the Mariners project and will be touring to Hull and Liverpool before returning to Bristol for a week in time for the Bristol Harbour festival, 18-20 July.
As Lucy explained, the exhbition includes a series of panels that highlight the major themes of the project – Race, Religion, Ports, and Gender – with biographies of key figures in the 19th century marine mission movement.
The exhibition features the work of three artists commissioned to interpret the themes of the project in their own individual ways. At the exhibition launch, the artists provided guests with some words of explanation about their own background, and how their artwork reflected on the historical themes of the project. As this was the first time any of them had seen the scale of the panels which featured their work, it was exciting to see their reactions to full-scale of the displays.
In her piece, award-winning artist Charlotte Jones incorporated elements of her family history. As she explained to us in her original brief: ‘I have a personal connection to this fantastic project as both sides of my family worked in the Liverpool docks at the later end of this era. One great grandfather was a cooper, and one grandfather was in the Merchant Navy.’ For the exhibition, Charlotte created a series of illustrations inspired by photographs of working lascars and merchant seamen that focus on community, race and empire. This has been realised in a series of stylised images in sepia colours evoking both nostalgia and empathy for their hard-working lives.
The study by Kremena Dimitrova incorporated her signature story-book sequences, using archival images and text, to visually narrate the experiences of merchant seamen of all nationalities.
In his contribution, Will Lindley focussed on maritime buildings and institutions, including floating chapels, missions, Sailors’ homes and orphanages, from across the project’s four case study ports. Many of these no longer exist. Reading from west to east, these were Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and London. Will’s illustrations were blown out in some cases to show the internal features of the buildings. In front of the Liverpool Seamen’s Orphan Institution, Will sketched the ghostly and poignant images of seamen’s orphans attending a church service. In his brief, Will explained: ‘My work is rooted in drawing and emerges from historical and contemporary explorations and research… drawing on training and experience in architecture, regeneration, heritage and engagement.’
The launch was a great opportunity for colleagues, students, artists and members of the Advisory Board, including Professor Brad Beaven from Portsmouth, and community historan, Asif Shakoor, to join us in appreciating these artists’ vision for our project.
In case you were wondering how we chose our three artists. The framework was laid out in the Mariners grant proposal, as funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. We knew that we wanted to engage professional artists, with a portfolio of work, and that the budget allowed us to offer to pay for ten days’ work in line with the rates recommended by the UK Artists’ Union. The initial brief was reviewed by the project team in March 2024. We put out a call for artists as widely as possible, including the Arts Council’s Arts Jobs UK and the Mariners website, and chose those which aligned best.
Thanks to all – but especially to Lucy Wray whose imagination and enthusiasm brought the exhibition together. Look out for the progress of the exhibition as it moves to Hull, Liverpool and back to Bristol over the next few months.
The exhibition will be travelling to the following sites – with some adjustment depending on local circumstances:
Hull: 13th May- 26th June
Venue address: Hull History Centre, Worship St, Hull HU2 8BG
Liverpool: End of May to end of July.
Venue address: Liverpool Record Office, 3rd Floor Central Library, William Brown Street, L3 8EW
Bristol: 7th July- 20th July
Venue address: St Stephen’s Church, 21 St Stephen’s St, Bristol BS1 1EQ