Personal statement

Rosie Snell's disquieting landscapes bear the inscriptions of war. A piece of real estate the spoils. Military machinery and installations camouflaged, hidden in the tangled foliage.

In these visions of post-nuclear pastoral, military objects have become monoliths, imbued with a quiet calm. Each machine static but at the same time predatory in its environment, the lack of human presence giving them an unnerving autonomy. Their camouflage appropriates the aesthetics of their surroundings, but can also be read as a language of anxiety and falsehoods.

Increasingly, new concepts and capabilities associated with our information age seem to offer a new type of warfare, a post-heroic warfare without bloodshed. But the fact of war is often a long way from our emotional or intellectual response to it. And however appealing modern theories of 'Clean Warfare'1 are, Clausewitz's stark warning still seems disturbingly current:

"The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharp sword and hack off our arms."

Carl von Clausewitz, 'On War'.

Snell's works are not those of a war artist, presenting a social documentation or conveying a particular political point of view. They encompass both the past and the future, examming concealment, disinformation and the physical and psychological impact war has had and continues to exert upon our environment.

1 Jean Baudrillard, 'The Gulf War did not take place'.

Academic qualifications

  • MA Norwich School of Art and design
  • BA(Hons) Loughborough College of Art and design

Experience

  • 1999 - current Bath Spa University - Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
  • 2009 - 2013 Swansea Metropolitan University - External Examiner
  • 2006 - 2009 Norwich School of Art and Design - Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art 
  • 1998 - 2010 City and Guilds of London Art School - Lecturer in Fine Art
  • 1998 - 1999 The Slade School of Fine Art - Lecturer in Fine Art

Teaching specialism

  • Fine Art Painting

External examiners

  • Swansea Metropolitan University - External Examiner for Fine Art

Current scholarship

  • Switzerland, Fake Chalets - research and series of paintings and prints
  • Avalanches - research
  • Greenland - Research. Series of paintings and drawings
  • Hurtgen - Research. Series of paintings and drawings
  • Maintaining knowledge of contemporary art through exhibition visits in the UK and abroad and related academic research

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce