—Shakespeare /Public Art Trail/

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

June - September 2022

To mark the 25th anniversary of Shakespeare’s Globe 2022, Better Bankside has created an immersive art trail, to bring the Great Bard’s voice back to Southwark, one of his favourite haunts.

Nestled around the Bankside area, 25 Shakespeare quotes have been chosen to illustrate the ways in which Shakespeare’s 400-year-old words continue to resonate, excite and inspire the artists and creative practitioners of today. With works of photography and illustration, textile and graphic design, sound and light-based projections, street art and installations, the trail aims to bring to life the playwright’s works through a variety of mesmerising media.

These lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is perhaps one of the most quoted lines in literature.

I wanted to create a wider relevance, reinterpreting the sonnet to reflect our relationship with the environment. 

This image of the temperate room from Kew Gardens became the base of the piece. I wanted an image that would feel at home in the UK, if not immediately familiar.  This connection is important, both in my artistic practice and when speaking about the climate.  

I often describe place as a “felt history.”  Our connection to a place paints a portrait that is both incredibly personal and universal. It’s my hope that this work sets a stage between the past, present and future.  

This work makes me think about the roles we take and how we choose to cast ourselves.

Inspiration

  • Rising temperatures and growing extremes

    Heat, fire, wind

    Reminds me of the Australian bushfires 2019, where I did an artist residency in 2019. We were in the Blue Mountains when the Gosper’s Mountain Bushfire raged. During our time there it grew from 22,000 hectares to over 300,000 hectares.

  • What I always like about Shakespeare was there were only two storylines: tragedy or comedy

    Reinterpreting this quote also reinterprets the sonnet’s tone.

    Does it become a satire, a warning or a hope?

    Ambiguity makes me want to create an image with this same duality, idyllic and eerie, fantastical yet familiar, dreamlike yet foreboding

  • The original Globe theatre would have been on the outskirts of London, surrounded by woodland

    I wanted a lush landscape that bring the past into the present, directly contrasting with the construction, development and concrete of the present day

Concept

Imagery

Collaboration with

  • Bankside London

  • Globe Theatre

  • Art Academy London

  • Creative Thinking & Doing Ltd.

  • Jack Art

Location

  • Old Globe Theatre, 125 Park Street SE1 9EW

Stage

  • Complete

Special Thanks to

  • Aida Esposito

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