Can a painting speak louder than words?

Visiting artist Tim Lee has approached the subject from a different perspective, in paint. He has painted a canvas titled ‘Migrant Ship’ (pictured here). His canvas was inspired as a consequence of viewing JMW Turner’s painting ‘Slave Ship’ which was exhibited at the British Royal Academy Exhibition in 1840. Turner depicted one of the most shameful events in British involvement in the slave trade. An event where slaves were thrown overboard in order to claim losses at sea. The Captain and his crew were nothing more than People Traffickers.

Tim explained that his contemporary reworking of Turner’s original is an attempt to convey the very similar shameful events that occur every week as migrants try to navigate ‘The River’ into Europe on inflatable boats clutching nothing more than an inflatable inner tyre tube and a mobile phone.

“I thought there were comparisons to be made, though 200 years have passed since ‘Slave Ship’ was painted, and migration is now a voluntary choice,” he says. “The People Traffickers and smugglers are back and still making money from their human cargo who are still drowning. I hope this painting might raise some awareness here in The Gambia where I finished the painting very close to the slaving post in Janjanbureh.”  

Tim went on to say: “An image sometimes sticks in the mind more than words or deterrents. I hope that Turner, an anti-slave trade campaigner, wouldn’t mind me reworking his painting, and that he’d view it as a glowing tribute, even though a vastly inferior work.”

 (Image shows Tim’s reworking and Turner’s original)

The Point has viewed this tragic portrayal of the dangers our ‘Backway’ migrants face and echo Tim’s thoughts on whether these young intrepid vulnerable souls truly know what lies ahead of them when they disappear without a word to family or friends? Some never to be seen again or returning home as brutalised failures, exploited and violated by heartless modern day People Traffickers.

(The painting will be loaned to Hassoum Ceesay at The National Museum of The Gambia)

In conclusion, when asked, Tim added: “It may just be wishful thinking and I’m just a long-term visitor here, but I’d hope that the life choice young Gambians choose might be one here in The Gambia towards a better future. Rather than choosing the tortuous experience of the ‘Backway’. It’s a sad thing to see a bright young resourceful person dragging themselves home ending up in Tanka Tanka on long-term medication. Or being thrown off a truck in the desert or washed up on a beach or drowning in ‘The River’ never to be seen or heard from again.”

Tim will be offering to loan his painting ‘Migrant Ship’ to The National Museum of The Gambia. We’d like to know what you think. Can a painting speak louder than words?

‘Migrant Ship’ © Timothy William Lee

www.paintingsbytimlee.co.uk