Artwork Inspired by Shackleton
The museum is proud to feature a number of artworks inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Shackleton’s Endurance
by artist Pauline Garavan
Words in Oil on Aluminium, Wire, 145 x 96 cm
Shackleton’s Endurance is based on the famous night-time photograph taken by Frank Hurley. He was the photographer on the Endurance Expedition (1914-16), which was led by Ernest Shackleton. The work was created specially to mark the centenary of the rescue of the crew of his ship ‘Endurance’ after it had become trapped and crushed in the Antarctic ice pack.
The image is made up of thousands of very closely condensed words which are taken from extracts of Shackleton’s diary that he kept on the Endurance Expedition.
The words are written on aluminium using black oil paints. The words are combined, sometimes compressed together and sometimes lightly inscribed and spaced, to make the image.
The image therefore requires close attention to the texture of letters and words which serve as the building blocks for the whole image.
Closer Images of the artwork:
