Brookes (Revisited)

Inspiring lecture at the National Maritime Museum about a proposed installation on the plan of the Brookes slave ship.

The plan was the famous one used by the abolitionists in their campaign. Elgin Cleckley, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, who is also an architect, has been doing projects around the work and was planning an exhibition/installation.

It took me a while to grasp that the installation hasn’t actually happened yet but I was fascinated by the idea as I have always been intrigued by the image which I first came across at school. I hadn’t realised the ship in question was a Liverpool one so it had that resonance for me as well as my family was from the city. He had done some amazing research on the various journeys of the ship and how many enslaved people were on each trip and how many got to their destination.

He showed us mock ups of how an installation might look, how he imagines people interacting with it and what issues it might rase.  He might be showing the work at the 2025 Biennale but museums need to take it up as it’s a powerful piece.

  

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