Oscar Wilde in Charing Cross: London #53

 

'A

CONVERSATION

WITH

OSCAR WILDE

1854 ~ 1900'

 

Derek Jarman wanted to see a statue of Oscar Wilde in London, although he died four years before this came about: Maggi Hambling's sculpture, A Conversation with Oscar Wilde, wasn't installed in Adelaide Street, Charing Cross, until 1998.

 

'We are all

in the gutter,

but some of us

are looking at

the stars.'

 

This famous quotation from Lady Windermere's Fan (1893) faces the head of Wilde at the base of the statue.

 

And Wilde rises from his sarcophagus, cigarette (unfortunately stolen again) poised in hand, to converse with anyone who wishes to take a seat.