Tom Hunter : A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

4 Oct-3 Nov 2012

Overview

A series of nine works commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, originally exhibited at the PACCAR Room, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Tom Hunter’s series A Midsummer Night’s Dream is inspired by Shakespeare’s play and the paintings of Romantic artist Henry Fuseli. This contemporary reworking of the play is set in Hackney, East London, where the artist lives and works, and features local people and communities including samba dancers, pearly kings and queens, a thrash metal band and a pole dancer. Taking key moments from the play, Hunter has distilled Shakespeare’s work into a series of images which weave together contemporary city life with that of the celebrated tale of love and illusion.