THE OSCAR WILDE INSTALLATION HAS BEEN RESTORED AND REPAIRED AND THE LAYOUT HAS BEEN CORRECTED [MERRION SQUARE DUBLIN]

The good news is that the restoration of the Oscar Wilde installation has been completed with the return of the two minor bronzes to their plinths. The stone plinths or pillars are covered in quotations from Wilde. One has a bronze figure of a pregnant naked woman kneeling on the top, while the other has a bronze male torso. My understanding is that they indicate Wilde's ambiguous sexuality and aesthetic sensibilities. The other bit of good news is that the orientation of the female nude has been corrected. NOTE: The female nude is Oscar’s wife [Constance Lloyd] who was six months pregnant when Oscar had his first homosexual encounter. Originally she was facing Oscar but someone tried to steal the bronze and when the authorities restored it they installed it facing the wrong direction and then the tour guides came up with stories to explain why she had turned her back on her husband. She is facing a different direction now but I am not 100% convinced that one could claim that she is now facing Oscar … maybe she should be on the other plinth. The great man reclines on a rock and is positioned so that he is looking at the last house on the north side of Merrion Square, the house where he once lived. The statue is made from stone of different colours - for example, Wilde's jacket is green stone with red stone cuffs.

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