Guests invited by local law firm Voisin enjoyed a very special event showcasing the work of two very talented Antarctic adventurers. They viewed an exciting exhibition featuring poignant photographs taken over a hundred years ago and now on display in the Island for the very first time.
Sponsored by Voisin Law, ‘The Ice Breaker’ showcases work from Herbert Ponting alongside local artist Nicholas Romeril. The exhibition at the Private & Public Gallery, St Helier explores the work of the both the very first and the most recent cultural attachments to the polar expeditionary force.
Guests were led on an historic journey through a series of photographs taken by Ponting during the winter of 1911 when he joined the Terra Nova Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition.
Ponting took some of the first known colour still photographs of the expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott who wanted to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. Having got there on 17th January 1912, the team discovered they’d been beaten to it 34 days earlier by a Norwegian team.
Tragically Scott’s entire party died on the way home and Ponting’s photographs, the only visual record of this historic expedition soon became a memorial to Scott and the team.
More than a century later, Jersey artist Nick Romeril embarked on his own Antarctic expedition when in January this year he was the 2018 artist in residence for the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute.
He travelled 3500 miles in total on board HMS Protector and was taken close to some of the colossal blue bergs which feature among the 200 plus small paintings and drawings he created during the trip.
Commenting Nick Romeril said: “It is a great honour to be awarded the FoSPRI artist in residence for 2018 but to have the chance to exhibit alongside such an important collection of photographs is an amazing privilege. The Ponting photographs and my paintings and films will present an exciting contrast of two artists visiting this remote land one hundred years apart.”
Voisin Law Managing Partner Ian Strang said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring this amazing exhibition, showcasing the work of two such talented artists. Ponting’s photos of that Antarctic winter are not only fascinating but an important, historical memorial of that fateful expedition. Meanwhile Nick Romeril’s bountiful collection of paintings and drawings give us a fantastic insight into this remote and beautiful part of the world.”
The exhibition at the Private & Public Gallery runs until Friday 21 December 2018.
