Online Foundation Art & Design
Exhibition of student artworkYear 1 - OFCAD show / Foundation Certificate course
Year 2 - OFDAD show / Foundation Diploma course
Gillian Jones
50cm x 50cm.
Title: State 1 Zulu
In 2024, HMS Diamond was engaged in intercepting drones and missiles launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. These threats targeted both the ship and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, marking the first time in decades the Royal Navy had engaged aerial targets "in anger." Within the Operations Room (Ops Room), from where the ship is fought, the reality of combat becomes a digital abstraction of radar
tracks and weapon arcs. My work explores the sensory and psychological experience of the individual within this digital cocoon.
To develop this theme, I researched numerous 20th-century war artists, including Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and C.R.W. Nevinson. Ravilious’s series of submarine lithographs were particularly influential; especially Commander of a Submarine which juxtaposes the captain at a periscope with a circular image of the view through the periscope. I also drew inspiration from Hughie O’Donoghue’s shipwreck series, specifically his
technique of embedding photographs of wrecks beneath layers of oil paint.
