To Die Upon A Kiss

In 2003, the conceptual artist Fred Wilson was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international art exposition. In his exhibition, Wilson aimed to restore the invisible influence of Africa in the art and culture of Venice, a historic crossroads of cultures. The material that he chose to work in was glass, traditional to Venice and marginalized in contemporary art. After the Biennale, Wilson continued to work in glass. “It turned out that [glass] was a very good vehicle for me intellectually, as well as sculpturally,” Wilson notes.* His chandeliers refer to a specific cultural and historical period and “reveal my desire to recast that era to include those like me, whose ancestors were not perceived to be a part of that moment in time.” The title, To Die Upon a Kiss, quotes the final words of Othello in Shakespeare’s tragedy. But the work is more “a rumination on death, or . . . the slow ebb of life,” Wilson says. “The chandelier’s color changes from clear and light glass at the top . . . to opaque black at the bottom with deliberate gradations of grey in between . . . a visual evocation of the fluidity, inconsistency, and fragility of the notion of race.” Published: Johanna Burton and Anne Ellegood, Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology, Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, and Munich and London: Delmonico Books/Prestel, 2014, p. 175; Oldknow (39), pp. 224–225; Kobena Mercer and Reto Thüring, Fred Wilson: Works, 2004–2011, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012, pp. 12–13 and 18; and Fred Wilson, Fred Wilson—Venice Suite: Sala Longhi and Related Works, New York: The Pace Gallery, 2012. A.P. 1 from an edition of 6 + 2 artist proofs * Quotations are from Fred Wilson, “The First One’s Free! Drip, Drop, Plop,” The Glass Art Society 2012 Journal, 2013, pp. 38–40.