“We are also committed to excavating the contradictory histories of the Enlightenment and bringing history in dialogue with the present. “We are committed to intellectual curiosity, public discourse, civic engagement, and a reasoned, scientific approach to history and historical understanding,” he said. Wilson’s work addresses this notion of intentionally buried history, and the library’s efforts in securing “No Way But This” just as intentionally insists that patrons confront the absent history.īenedict Leca, Redwood’s executive director, referred to this in introductory remarks at the event. “Oh, those are the graves of the slaves,” she said. I said it all made sense to me except for curious single names like Plato and Cuffy.

One of the librarians asked if I was enjoying the search. Many years ago, while working on a story about Newport’s Common Burying Ground, I combed through records at the library and found familiar names and some curious ones. Juxtaposing a light fixture made of light absorbing black glass in a space that embodies western Enlightenment traditions challenges viewers to rethink the space, the implications of the surroundings, and what those surroundings intentionally do not reveal.Īfter retiring this year from 22 years of teaching journalism at the University of Rhode Island, John Pantalone, the founding editor of Newport This Week, is happy to be writing for the paper again. The portraits suggest a mainstream, Enlightenment era view of political and social power held by “gentlemen,” such as the library’s principal founder, Abraham Redwood, whose family attained great wealth through the slave trade, some of which made its way to the founding of the library. The ornate, highly detailed chandelier hangs from a cupola in the ceiling of a room surrounded by a ribbon of colonial portraits that wind around the top of the walls.

The chandelier is titled after a line from “Othello” as well, “No Way But This,” uttered by the main character at the end of the play just before he kills himself. New York artist Fred Wilson (Photo by David Hanssen)īest known for his penchant for taking contemporary objects and re-contextualizing them in new spaces, Wilson created the black glass chandelier using a metaphorical link to Shakespeare’s “Othello.” He titled the Venice installation “Speak of Me As I Am,” taking a line from the play as a reference to how different forms of media engage in representation of various groups of people.

Black light fixture chandelier