KLAUS WEHNER

"The Deptford Maritime Museum was first produced for the arts festival Deptford X in September 2009, which was held in close vicinity to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It was exhibited again by the Fieldgate Gallery for 'JT Projects 09'. Reflecting on its national big sibling, The Deptford Maritime Museum presents a selection of remarkable objects that memorise and celebrate Deptford's local historical link to England's maritime history. The Deptford Maritime Museum shows relics that tell surprising stories, some of very private and personal, others of international significance."

This installation was my second collaboration with the arts festival Deptford X. It was exhibited a second time by Richard Ducker's Fieldgate Gallery as part of JT Projects 09.

I repeated the method that I used for the Museum Clausum Deptford two years previously: I assembled a collection of objects from random sources. Each was made into an exhibit by staging it on a plinth with covers where suitable. The exhibits were arranged in a grid with distance between them, so viewers had to move around focusing on one after another individually.

Instead of labels, gallery booklets were handed to visitors which gave information and stories in text form for each respective object. The booklet was hence an integral part of the exhibition. A pdf can be viewed/downloaded by clicking on the logo top left.
Thematically, the supplied information stayed broadly with the maritime theme with one aim being to tell very private and personal stories. The staging as exhibits together with the given information transformed ordinary objects into relics - that in turn were used to tell stories.