A telescope in the Chester Beatty Library "is a kind of metaphor" to explore political life, according to artist Daphne Plessner.
The life-size sculpture, made of vellum, "explores the relationship between two forms of government - a monarchy and a republic", she said. When you peer through the eyepiece of the telescope, you see pop-up pictures that depict stages in the transformation from a monarchy to a republic.
Friends who came to enjoy the opening of the exhibition, Pop-up Politics: A Satirical Adventure through an Interactive Book, at the Chester Beatty Library this week included Senator David Norris and the writer and screenwriter Shane Connaughton.
Plessner's work is displayed on the first floor of the library, among satirical prints of the French Revolution that are part of the Chester Beatty collection. Her work, she says, aims to "engage with some political issues" and to provide viewers "with a way of enjoying that". The London-based artist was inspired to develop her work when she studied for a degree in philosophy at the University of London.
Dr Michael Ryan, director of the library, says the satirical work takes the viewer on a journey through the ideas that underpin contemporary political life in Europe and America. The satirical prints from the French Revolution are among the earliest collections of political mass media and the finest such collection outside of France, says Ryan.
According to Charles Horton, curator of the western collections at the Chester Beatty Library, "caricatures and satirical prints are a powerful medium through which the little man can strike back".
Pop-up Politics: A Satirical Adventure through an Interactive Book continues at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle, until January 15th, 2005.