![McDermott & McGough, ‘The Oscar Wilde Temple’, Studio Voltaire, London. Courtesy: the artists and Studio Voltaire; photograph: Francis Ware](https://static.frieze.com/files/inline-images/editorial-the-oscar-wilde-temple-by-mcdermott-mcgough-studio-voltaire-london-3-october-2018-to-31-march-2019-courtesy-of-the-artists-and-studio-voltaire-credit-francis-ware-13.jpeg)
My new article for OnlySky Media, Oscar Wilde’s ‘Confraternity of the Faithless’ discusses Wilde’s notion of “agnostic ritual” and its modern interpretation via the Oscar Wilde Temple art installation/secular ritual space:
Inspired by the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century and subverting traditional Catholic iconography, the Temple evokes a kind of alternative reality in which Wilde’s suffering has consecrated him as a martyr/deity within a hypothetical queer religion. It invites visitors to imaginatively participate in a “faith” that might have been founded by Wilde himself, or perhaps by his friends and admirers, after his release from prison in 1897.