Words + Images

I thought I was pretty observant but I missed Dionysus’s torso as I meandered about the Oscar Wilde Memorial in Merrion Square.  The complete memorial includes three pieces: “the stone sculpture of Oscar Wilde, a pillar with a bronze of his pregnant wife and a pillar with a bronze male torso.” Actually, I think I noticed a torso but somehow it didn’t grab me the way Mr. Wilde did.

The sculpture was designed by Irish sculptor Danny Osborne.  As described on the Dublin City Council website, “Osborne used complementary polished colour stones and varying textures to create this striking lifelike pose of the writer sitting atop a 35-tonne boulder of white quartz from the Wicklow mountains. He wanted to depict Wilde’s love of beautiful objects, including stones, as well as his colourful personality. … Wilde is wearing a green smoking jacket with a pink collar, long trousers and shiny black shoes, with an unusual two-sided expression on his face, depicting both joy and sadness. Wilde’s shiny green jacket is made from nephrite jade, sourced in Canada. The pink collar is made of a rare semi precious stone called thulite, brought here from central Norway. Wilde’s head and hands are carved from Guatemalan jade. His trousers are made from larvikite – a crystalline stone from Norway, and his shiny shoes are black granite.”

Learn more, in the artist’s own words, in the video on the following page: http://www.dublincity.ie/DublinArtInParks/English

And Wikipedia has a great page about Oscar Wilde: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

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