Fred Wilson on his New, Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger

Fred Wilson on his New, Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger

Fred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello. In the years since then, Wilson has made several other pieces that engage with Othello, many of them made from the same evocative black Murano glass. In a new installation piece commissioned by the Folger, Wilson brings together two sides of his artistic practice: institutional critique and glass sculpture. It’s titled “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend”—another line from Othello, this one spoken by Desdemona. The installation includes a massive black-glass mirror, ornately etched and filigreed. Visitors see themselves reflected in the mirror, along with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth that hangs opposite the mirror in the gallery. On another wall hangs an engraving of the actor Ira Aldridge in the role of Othello, alongside lines from the play written out in Aldridge’s own hand. The piece brings together questions of identity, belonging, erasure, and representation—and lets those facets reflect and refract one another, without easy answers. On this episode, Wilson discusses the piece with host Barbara Bogaev. Fred Wilson’s installation, “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend,” will welcome visitors to the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall when the Folger reopens on June 21. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 4, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Avsnitt(296)

Adjoa Andoh on Shakespeare

Adjoa Andoh on Shakespeare

Known to many as Lady Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton, Adjoa Andoh, MBE, is also a celebrated Shakespearean actor and director. Across her career, Andoh has returned to Shakespeare not as a fixed can...

23 Mars 37min

Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Many readers turn to Shakespeare for the beauty of his language or the power of his stories. But in Thinking Through Shakespeare, Oxford scholar David Womersley suggests that the plays offer something...

10 Mars 34min

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

When you visit a new city, one of your first stops might be a museum. It turns out that public art galleries are largely an 18th-century invention. In London in 1789, publisher John Boydell helped sha...

24 Feb 36min

Whitney White and Shakespeare

Whitney White and Shakespeare

Whitney White is a theatrical powerhouse. A director, writer, actor, and musician, White’s work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at major institutions including The Public Theater, the Bro...

10 Feb 34min

Shakespeare and Mathematics

Shakespeare and Mathematics

Many Shakespeare fans don’t think of themselves as “math people.” They’re theater kids, poetry lovers, bookworms, right? But in Shakespeare’s world, math and literature were deeply intertwined. In Muc...

27 Jan 34min

Spain's Golden Age of Theater

Spain's Golden Age of Theater

While Shakespeare was reshaping English drama, a parallel theatrical revolution was unfolding in Spain. During the Spanish Golden Age, playwright Lope de Vega pioneered the comedia nueva, a bold new d...

13 Jan 31min

The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

Why does Samuel Pepys’s diary still matter 200 years after it was first published? In her new book, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary, historian Kate Loveman examines how Pepys’s extraordina...

29 Dec 202536min

Celebrating Elizabethan Cooking, with Sam Bilton

Celebrating Elizabethan Cooking, with Sam Bilton

What did people really eat in Shakespeare’s England? In her new book, Much Ado About Cooking, food historian Sam Bilton uncovers the vibrant and surprising world of early modern cuisine—where sugar wa...

16 Dec 202534min

Populärt inom Premium

mellan-himmel-och-jord-med-jlc
den-som-skrattar-forlorar-podcast-2
tutto-balutto
rattegangspodden
podme-dokumentar
filip-fredrik-svarar
fangelsepodden
hogt-i-tak-2
svenska-mordhistorier
jocke-jonna-sanningen-maste-fram
en-mork-historia
mordpodden
infor-ratta
daddy-issues
bakom-galler
mardromsgasten
seriemordarpodden
rattsfallen
aterforeningen-en-podcast-med-thorsten-och-richard-flinck-av-sigge-eklund
brottet-inifran