Unbroken : Art Installation by EVEWRIGHT (30th Nov 2025-15 Feb 2026)

Unbroken, is a stunning immersive 16 banner art installation that spans Ocean Court at the National Maritime Museum created by artist EVEWRIGHT along with Poetry from Ionie Richards and a curated visceral atmospheric visual and sound stormscape which responds to the Zong massacre.

In 1781, the crew of the British slave ship Zong threw 133 enslaved African people overboard, allegedly because there was not enough drinking water on the vessel, in order to claim compensation under their insurance.

The new installation has been made by Evewright Arts, as part of a five-month residency at Royal Museums Greenwich. The community organisation works to seek out, find and preserve untold Black British stories from the diaspora using visual arts.

In Unbroken, EVEWRIGHT reimagines the Museum’s naval uniforms alongside a previous sculptural series, £££ Kissi Penny $$$, named in reference to an iron currency used during the trade of enslaved people in West Africa. The artist explores the theme of Ocean Justice to create an artwork of potent juxtaposition that exposes the intersection of value, humanity and institutional complicity in the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people.

Artist EVEWRIGHT said:

‘I discovered the ship’s log for the British slave ship Zong within the Maritime Museum’s archive collection. Unbroken was created as an emotional response to the M**der of 133 enslaved Africans thrown overboard for the sake of an insurance claim. The one ‘Unbroken African’ who fought to survive by climbing back on board the vessel, however, was thrown back into the sea.

‘My work is an active, ongoing dedication to him and his struggle, which is unequivocally the fight of the Black British people in the UK today. Unbroken is not merely an artwork; it is a lament, a challenge, and a demand for institutional accountability, built upon the enduring strength of a man who refused to be broken…’forever climbing back on boarding.’’’

EVEWRIGHT’s artwork is also interplayed with a poem on a banner, Laying the Burden by Ionie Richards who said:

‘I used poetry to create a dialogue, and reverence within the space, a homage to the 54 women and children thrown overboard on the Zong as part of the 133 African people murdered. Laying the Burden along with other poems from my collection seeks to highlight the inhumanity of the ocean journey of those trafficked and enslaved.’

Sarah Lockwood Head of Engagement at the National Maritime Museum said:
‘Royal Museums Greenwich is proud to present Unbroken, a powerful new art installation created collaboratively by Evewright Arts, in response to a 5-month residency interrogating the museum’s collections through the lens of Ocean Justice. This new work embodies the complex stories that can be told through museum objects and archives, centring human resilience and the honouring of ancestors in this creative response to the tragic events on board the British slave ship Zong.’

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, London, United Kingdom

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