Tim Brennan: The Republic of Atlantis
This exhibition has now closed.
Exhibition dates: 9 May–31 October 2002
Tim Brennan was the Museum's artist-in-residence between May and October 2002. His artwork 'The Republic of Atlantis' is influenced by the writings of the philosopher Plato, who in the 4th century BC described the lost city of Atlantis as a harmonious and peaceful society.
For this work, visitors to the Queen's House were invited to write a description of their 'perfect world'. They did this by writing a special message, tying it with a ribbon, and putting it in one of several thousand bottles placed on tables in one of the Queen's House parlours. In return for their help visitors received a special certificate of citizenship to the fictional Republic of Atlantis. The messages and bottles created an interactive artwork which grew over time.
The public's response was overwhelming: nearly 3000 messages were written. Eighty per cent of these called for a world without hunger, crime, war, racism and disease, and where love, peace and harmony have the upper hand.
Each month the artist also selected an artefact from the Museum's collections for exhibition in the space. Doing this helped Tim Brennan develop the themes of the artwork. For the final month of his residency he has transformed the messages into a wreath, to be displayed alongside a painting from the Museum's collection: 'Nazi Wreath in the North Sea in Memory of the Battle of Jutland', by Claus Bergen.
The combination of these two objects was devised as a reflection on recent world events, generated in the tensions between 'terror' and 'justice', 'civilization' and 'barbarism' and 'freedom' and 'free-market'.
View the objects
Astrolabe
This astrolabe is attributed to the Fleming, Thomas Gemini, who worked in England. It was believed to be that of Queen Elizabeth I when it was found in the cupboards of Oxford University Observatory in 1936. The rete, or star map, enables the navigator to gauge the time by day or by night. The relative positions of the bright stars are indicated in detail. It was by bringing the numerous named star-pointers to their right altitudes, by reference to the lines on an underlying plate, that the mariner could use the stars to tell the time.
Recent research suggests that the instrument was probably owned by Edward VI. Some of the astrological inscriptions resemble those laid out by the 16th-century royal mathematician and astrologer, Dr. John Dee, in his Monas Hieroglyphica (1564). This suggests that the astrolabe may have been brought into the country and used by Dee in his researches on star-mapping, horoscopes and navigation (Dee wrote The Art of Navigation).
Relic from Parry's Arctic expedition
The Arctic expedition of 1827 from Spitsbergen, reached 82° 45'N. Its commander was William Edward Parry (1796–1855). On 17 May 1827 they were intending to leave a supply dump at Hakluyt's Headland, Spitsbergen, for the returning sledge party but could not get ashore due to a gale.
InscriptionThis boat is left for Captain Parry and his party on their return from attempting to reach the North Pole. It is particularly requested that she may not be removed as they will probably be much in want of her.
HM Ship Hecla
May 15th 1827
The Holy Bible
In parallel to his residency at the National Maritime Museum, Tim Brennan has been developing new ideas on curating – an activity which involves gathering, selecting and ordering. This is something that Museums do today, and can be traced back to the Old Testament Bible stories of Noah and Solomon.
St Kilda mailboat
The display includes a sheep's bladder traditionally used to help carry messages from the Isle of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, to Scotland via the North Atlantic Ocean.
Mail and messages were put inside the carved wooden box, which was then sealed and the bladder inflated. The mailboat was then thrown into the sea, relying on the tides and currents to carry it to the mainland.
The mailboat usually landed either on the Scottish coast or was washed up somewhere on the Scandinavian coast – where the locals would post it to the Scottish mainland.