National Portrait Gallery Displays 40-Minute Video on Historical Figures and Contemporary Leaders
A video installation by Helen Cammock at the National Portrait Gallery states that Winston Churchill wilfully starved the Indian population and compares his actions to those of Oliver Cromwell.
disabilityscoop.comA 40-minute video titled Persistence by Helen Cammock is on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The video states that Winston Churchill wilfully starved the Indian population during the Bengal famine of 1943. It compares those actions to Oliver Cromwell starving people en masse during his campaigns in Ireland.
The video names Cecil Rhodes and former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli as historical purveyors of violence. It labels landscape painter John Constable and pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti as privileged. The video also claims Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committing mass starvation.
The installation is one of eight works commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery for the project Artists First: Contemporary Perspectives on Portraiture. It is supported by the Chanel Culture Fund. The piece is located near portraits of William Shakespeare and Elizabeth I.
The installation incorporates the gallery's stills along with footage of Malcolm X speeches, Pride marches, and pro-Palestine demonstrations. Some formal complaints have been lodged over the content of the installation, according to The Telegraph. The work will remain open until August 2, 2026.
Earlier in 2026, the National Portrait Gallery placed a trigger warning near a portrait of Lawrence of Arabia over his wearing of Arab clothing. Warnings were also placed by a portrait of Lord Byron in Albanian national garb. In 2019, Helen Cammock chose to split the Turner Prize with her three fellow nominees.
