In the preface to his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890, Oscar Wilde proclaimed that “all art is quite useless”. Intrigued by the statement, Oxford student Bernulf Clegg wrote him a letter asking him for more details regarding that declaration. Wilde responded with a letter where he included some of his thoughts revolving around the function and the futility of art.
But The Subject Is A Long One is a textbased light installation featuring the letter Oscar Wilde would write to Bernulf Clegg. The text is only revealed when walking around the work, as due to its dimensions and materials, the light and the text are transformed into space. Likewise, the spatiality transcends the realm of physicality, when becoming a testimony of the correspondence established by these two characters and that would continue for a few years. The text also reflects on a specific context held within the XIX century decay; a generalized skepticism that would permeate every sort of artistic expression.
But The Subject Is A Long One, 2020
Neon
3×12 m
16, Tite Street
Chelsea, S. W.
My dear Sir
Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility. If the contemplation of a work of art is followed by activity of any kind, the work is either of a very second-rate order, or the spectator has failed to realize the complete artistic impression.
A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one.
Truly yours,
Oscar Wilde
Taking as a standpoint Wilde’s letter, a concrete poem of sorts was created featuring quotes by other writers, theorists, poets and artists, who would also think of art as rather useless space. The poem, which is a text with no beginning and no end, contains quotes by John Ruskin, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Marcel Duchamp, William Morris, Groucho Marx, Anish Kapoor, Michael Smith, John Everett Millais, Walter Benjamin, Ben Vautier and other authors. This investigation is an attempt to continue Wilde’s letter in different contexts and epochs and keep the correspondence with Wilde. After all, the letter’s final sentence is “‘But the subject is a long one”.
