{"id":3011,"date":"2016-10-30T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T21:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2016-11-01T12:00:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T11:00:48","slug":"art-in-memory-of-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=3011","title":{"rendered":"Art in memory of Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"20161030_110147\"<\/a>A visit to the memorable Artangel installation at Reading Gaol<\/a>, that most Victorian of prisons with its red-brick cruciform shape and wire-grilled segregation.\u00a0 I filmed ‘Oscar<\/a>‘ for the BBC here when it was still an active prison some 20 years ago; it closed in 2013 and is now scheduled to be sold off.\u00a0 But before it is, Artangel have continued their bold and imaginative curating of art spaces that no one normally reaches by getting artists and writers like Ai Weiwei and Anne Carson to leave messages in the cells that reflect Oscar Wilde\u2019s incarceration here.\u00a0 The finest of these offerings by far comes from Steve McQueen \u2013 a sculpture in which a prison bed is swathed in mosquito nets like a cocoon of the imagination.<\/p>\n

\"20161030_111831\"<\/a>I revisit Oscar\u2019s cell \u2013 C.2.2.\u00a0 When I filmed here<\/a>, it was being used by two inmates so was even more crowded than in Wilde\u2019s day \u2013 although he had to endure a harsh regime of physical labour.\u00a0 \u2018The most terrible thing about it is not that prison breaks one’s heart – hearts are made to be broken – but that it turns one’s heart to stone,\u2019 as he wrote in De Profundis<\/em>, his book-length letter from the cell.<\/p>\n

\"20161030_111753\"<\/a>
Wilde’s cell with a rose left as offering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the day I visit, Patti Smith gives a three hour reading from De Profundis<\/em> in the prison chapel.\u00a0 She sings a short burst from two songs at the opening and close \u2013 first from Nina Simone\u2019s \u00a0\u2018Wild is the Wind\u2019, then from her own \u2018Wind\u2019.\u00a0 There are sections of the letter where, as Patti admits (\u2018What did that last bit mean?\u00a0 I have no idea…\u2019) Wilde can lose the reader as he goes off on wild and lonely tangents.\u00a0 But there are also passages of haunting beauty: \u2018I threw the pearl of my soul into a cup of wine.\u2019\u00a0 It is a fitting tribute and one Patti delivers with passion and empathy.<\/p>\n

\"20161030_113729\"<\/a>
Steve McQueen’s ‘Weight’, with gold-plated mosquito netting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

.<\/p>\n

Oscar, the film I made with Michael Bracewell for the BBC, is still available on iPlayer<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20161030_113619\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A visit to the memorable Artangel installation at Reading Gaol, that most Victorian of prisons with its red-brick cruciform shape and wire-grilled segregation.\u00a0 I filmed ‘Oscar‘ for the BBC here when it was still an active prison some 20 years ago; it closed in 2013 and is now scheduled to be sold off.\u00a0 But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,42,65,1],"tags":[148,149],"class_list":["post-3011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-britain","category-literature","category-uncategorized","tag-oscar-wilde","tag-reading-gaol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3011"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}