Iago's Mirror
Artist: Fred Wilson (American, born 1954)
Date: 2009
Dimensions:
H: 80 in. (203.2 cm); W: 48 3/4 in. (123.8 cm); Depth: 10 1/2 in. (26.7 cm)
Medium: Black plate glass; mirrored, molded, tooled, cut, and assembled
Place of Origin: New York
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Partial gift of The Pace Gallery in honor of Georgia E. Welles and partial purchase with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 2010.9
Label Text:Fred Wilson’s interdisciplinary practice challenges assumptions of history, race, and culture. Designed by Wilson and made in traditional 18th-century Rococo style by Murano glassworkers in Venice, Italy, Iago’s Mirror is composed of multiple black glass mirrors layered on top of one another, which alters viewers’ reflections. The result is simultaneously beautiful and ominous. Wilson is interested in this tension and explains “People have to deal with the fact that there is meaning in beauty. There is meaning in ugliness. Beauty and ugliness are not necessarily separate… it’s not a flaw to see something beautiful and understand there’s either ugliness or meaning within its sphere.”
Iago’s Mirror references Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello—a story of an African general in the Venetian outpost of Cyprus who is tragically undone by Iago, a soldier in his command, after Iago is overlooked for a promotion (many literary scholars presume Iago is white). Throughout the play, Iago’s racist resentment comes to the fore. he does not refer to Othello by name but as “the Moor,” “the devil,” or “defective.” As indicated by the title, this mirror belongs to or is for Iago, who infamously states, “I am not what I am.” Like it does for viewers, the mirror creates a distorted, obscured portrait of Iago, whose rage and bigotry distorts his soul, echoing Othello’s themes of manipulation, racial prejudice, and distorted perceptions.
Iago’s Mirror references Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello—a story of an African general in the Venetian outpost of Cyprus who is tragically undone by Iago, a soldier in his command, after Iago is overlooked for a promotion (many literary scholars presume Iago is white). Throughout the play, Iago’s racist resentment comes to the fore. he does not refer to Othello by name but as “the Moor,” “the devil,” or “defective.” As indicated by the title, this mirror belongs to or is for Iago, who infamously states, “I am not what I am.” Like it does for viewers, the mirror creates a distorted, obscured portrait of Iago, whose rage and bigotry distorts his soul, echoing Othello’s themes of manipulation, racial prejudice, and distorted perceptions.
On view
In Collection(s)