THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York, US, 2024.

The House Beautiful is a series of works that acknowledge, illuminate, and celebrate the discovery of a new chapter in Fire Island’s queer heritage. In 1882, Oscar Wilde arrived in New York and conducted a lecture tour across the US for most of that year, one of these lectures he titled “The House Beautiful”. He visited many sites in New York but there was speculation over whether he visited Fire Island or not. In Fire Island: A Queer History (Jack Parlett, 2022) it states:

"The Fire Island Wilde would have found that summer was in full swing, with its hotels overflowing. But there is as yet no primary evidence that Wilde ever actually made it there. The sole source for the story that he visited Cherry Grove was written by local Sayville historian Charles Dickerson. Dickerson claimed that, in local legend, Wilde wrote about Cherry Grove in his diary as 'one of the most beautiful resorts' he had ever visited. But no diary from Wilde’s American tour has ever been discovered, meaning there is no real evidence for this assertion, but that has hardly dulled its sparkle" (pp. 28-29).

Furthermore, the Cherry Groves Archive Collection stated that Wilde "allegedly" visited Cherry Grove on Fire Island in 1882. There is also an article titled "WILDE IN THE GROVE... MAYBE" by John Bogack in a social media post for the Facebook page "FIRE Island STAR" (2018). Bogack states "there is no account that definitely places Oscar Wilde visiting Cherry Grove and the Perkinson hotel. However there is certainly reason to think evidence may yet turn up".

Novak investigated further, and something did turn up. There is a firsthand account of Oscar Wilde visiting Fire Island in the Geneva Advertiser vol. II, no. 31, dated 1 August, 1882 (below). It is a short article in the "Local" section titled "Aesthetic Oscar". It begins in third person (most likely Edgar Parker the editor of the newspaper) with an introduction to the words of a "brother 'quill'" (fellow writer) who shares his impressions of Oscar Wilde visiting Fire Island and staying with him.

tangled sunbeam of gold

This work expands queer symbolism associated with Oscar Wilde through the exploration of the yellow pansy he wore on Fire Island in 1882. The green carnation is often associated with Wilde regarding an early queer symbol, one account stating he wore this flower to the opening of his play Lady Windermere’s Fan in 1892. However, he wore many flower types including the yellow pansy as noted in the newspaper article above: “His hat very much resembled Harry D’s sombrero and had a yellow pansy fastened in the front”. Research suggests it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that pansy was used to refer to homosexual men. Tangled Sunbeam of Gold challenges the research by suggesting Wilde introduced it much sooner.

Novak abstracts the pansy flower into a new queer symbol. The five petals merge to strengthen the form, the central section mimicking but inverting the triangular shape in the centre of the pansy to reflect the pink triangle reclaimed in the 1970’’s as a symbol of pride. The title comes from a line in Wilde’s poem Roses and Rue.

THE LOVER’S CROWN

Oscar Wilde visited Babylon (New York) the month before his reported visit to Fire Island in 1882. One newspaper, The Long Island Traveler (vol. XI, no. 48, dated 4 August, 1882), gives an account of this visit, “his chief adornment being a wreath of daisies worn in his hat”. The Lover’s Crown I echoes this wreath form by replicating and rotating the pansy shape in Tangled Sunbeam of Gold to form a pansy circlet in the colours of the six-colour rainbow flag. The title comes from a line in Wilde’s poem Flower of Love.

The next work, The Lover’s Crown II, reconfigures The Lover’s Crown I and adds motion and sound. The pansy circlet spins like a globe on its axis, the colours changing over time as six different light filters (the colours of the six-colour rainbow flag) are applied following the order red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Over time, the different filters absorb different wavelengths in the visible spectrum, erasing particular colours.

The sound component is Sweet Violets by Joseph Emmet which was released in 1882 when Wilde was in New York. It was categorised as popular music at the time, therefore a song Wilde may have heard during his travels. During Novak’s research only the manuscript for this song could be located, so it was converted into audio. Violets have long been a queer symbol. Sappho, the ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, describes a lover as wearing crowns of violets.

TO LIFE

Napoleon Sarony took portrait photographs of Oscar Wilde in New York in 1882, the same year Wilde visited Fire Island. To Life takes one of these photographs (left), inverting and colourising it into a new image (right) with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). Forms explored in The Lover’s Crown (above) become a central overlay, a crown of yellow pansies suspended in space like the sun. To Life imagines Wilde as one of many elements contributing to the birth of queer energy on Fire Island, its vibrance, openness, and intensity.

Image source: Oscar Wilde/Sarony, N. Sarony, 1882, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., US.