Arts Development

Oscar Wilde Memorial Commission

Project overview

To mark the centenary of Oscar Wilde’s death, Reading Borough Council commissioned poet Paul Muldoon and artist Bruce Williams to create a contemporary memorial. This public artwork is sited along Chestnut Walk, adjacent to Reading Gaol where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated between 1895 and 1897, and incorporates sculpture and poetry. The Oscar Wilde Memorial Commission was completed in November 2000.

Creative practitioners/Artists

Bruce Williams www.brucewilliams.net

Paul Muldoon  www.paulmuldoon.net

Partners and funders

Reading Borough Council

National Lottery through Arts Council England www.artscouncil.org.uk

Southern Arts

Artpoint Trust  www.artpointtrust.org.uk

Description

Oscar Wilde spent two years in Reading Gaol, imprisoned for homosexuality. During this period Wilde wrote De Profundis and after his release, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, two of his most powerful works.

In May 1997, the centenary of Oscar Wilde’s release from Reading Gaol, Reading Borough Council launched a joint visual arts and literature commission. In doing so, the Council wished to pay tribute to the work of Oscar Wilde and acknowledge his experience in the town by providing an opportunity for two artists to make a contemporary memorial. The chosen site for the work was Chestnut Walk, bounded on one side by the former Reading Gaol and on the other by the River Kennet.

Artist Bruce Williams and poet Paul Muldoon were selected to work on the commission, each having a considerable track record in their own right, but each also being open to a process of collaboration. The completed work was unveiled in November 2000, the centenary of Oscar Wilde’s death.

The commission consists of a series of artworks by Bruce Williams including gates, loveseats, a bench, and railings. Two new poems by Paul Muldoon have been incorporated into the artworks.

The visitor is greeted first by a towering image of Wilde forming one of two open gates. Williams has achieved a level of theatrical illusion both in the sculptured image and in the gate itself. The image of Wilde is a flat metal plate laser-cut to create the photographic illusion of volume. The gates give the impression of being shut, but are in fact permanently open – an explicit symbol of liberty which is central to the meaning of the work. Flanking the gates are two panels which carry the text of the Paul Muldoon poems, The Gate and The Bed.

The edge of the River Kennet is lined with a laser-cut fence also designed by Williams. This gives the illusion of drapery, as seen in a parlour or proscenium arch. Where the curtains open the text “Oh beautiful world” has been etched in. These are the word first spoken by Wilde on leaving gaol.

William’s sculptured tribute continues with a series of bright red love seats and a bench inspired by the kind of wooden bed Wilde would have slept on in prison.

The Oscar Wilde Memorial Commission pays tribute to Wilde and his creativity, influence, sexuality and humanity. Bruce Williams and Paul Muldoon have each acknowledged Wilde’s experience in Reading Gaol, and their work contains references to incarceration and release. Bruce Williams said: “The memorial is a visual essay to compliment Paul Muldoon’s poems. The red love seats keep people apart but also bring them together. The wooden bench mimics Wilde’s bed but is reminiscent of his tomb. The gates can never close and the words of liberation in the railings are in the shadow of the prison walls. This is a memorial not monument. It is a long, low and enveloping environment, a place of contemplation and for new intimacies, this time without judgement.”