Tessa Farmer, The Court of the Fairy (detail), 2006. Courtesy Parabola

In 1656, a catalogue of the rarities contained within the Tradescant Ark was published. The Ark was the first public ‘museum’ in England, containing such curiosities as a necklace made of fly thighs and Henry VIII’s riding spurs.

Paying homage to the 350th anniversary of this list of bewildering and intriguing objects, the Museum of Garden History, London, is presenting an exhibition of artists’ responses to the nature of museological collecting. Repatriating the Ark, running until October 29 2006, features sculpture, video, drawing and mixed media works by ten artists, as well as pieces of the original Cabinet of Curiosities.

Jo Coupe, Sarracenia purpurea, 2006. Courtesy Parabola

The Cabinet of Curiosities was assembled by the John Tradescants, father and son gentlemen gardeners, explorers and collectors. As well as bringing an impressive array of new species of flora to Britain from the Americas and Europe, they gathered a collection of celebrity paraphernalia, anthropological and naturally occurring oddities in a Cabinet of Curiosities. Their story throws up notions of ownership and authorship, which the exhibition considers.

The Ark catalogue, Musaeum Tradescantium, was written by John Tradescant the Younger with help from Elias Ashmole – founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was to the Ashmolean that the Cabinet of Curiosities eventually passed and most of it has remained there, though being an internationally important collection some pieces have been redistributed.

Rieko Akatsuka, Kappa, 2006. Courtesy Parabola

Items from the cabinet have been loaned by the Ashmolean and the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, to the Museum of Garden History, for the first time in nearly 350 years; to be considered in a new context, where the nature of collection and procurement is critically examined. The Tradescants are buried in the grounds of the Lambeth museum, which is housed in a former church.

Museum artefacts are mixed with contemporary art by Reiko Akatsuka, Holly Antrum, Faye Claridge, Jo Coupe, Tessa Farmer, Andrea Gregson, Tania Kovats, Uriel Orlow, Pauletter Phillips and Michael Samuels. Performance-based artists Richard Dedomenici and Christian Nold, and poet Karen McCarthy are also participating in the exhibition.

The exhibition has been organised by the Parabola Trust.