Alberta Whittle

Audioguide

This woodblock print is a tribute to a very tiny creature, the shipworm. The printing plate used by the artist Alberta Whittle features a copy of a 16th century engraving by the Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry – but it has been ravaged by woodworms. De Bry was famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. In this engraving, an indigenous man is depicted stealing a hat from Francis Drake, the English vice-admiral and privateer near Río de la Plata, Brazil. A sailor reported at the time that Drake was merely amused by the theft and refused to allow any of his men to harm the thieves. However, he was not quite so benign in other respects. Drake undertook numerous raids during which he captured Africans and sold them as slaves.

As invincible as the colonialists seemed, the destructive shipworms posed a real threat with many of their ships being damaged by these tiny parasites. One infestation caused Christopher Columbus to be stranded on the coast of Jamaica for more than a year in 1503. In Alberta Whittle's work, the shipworm stands for resistance to colonisation and oppression. She celebrates it as a symbol of unrecognised power, those who rise up from below and resist European imperialism. Whittle has added etched copper shipworms to the damaged woodblock in reference to the copper hulls that shipbuilders introduced in response to the creatures.