Output details

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, Set designs and costumes for one of three new ballets at the Royal Opera House, London (Trepass) and artwork for exhibition, National Gallery, London (Diana).

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 was a multi-art project, part of the Cultural Olympiad’s London 2012 Festival. It featured new work by Mark Wallinger, Chris Ofili and Conrad Shawcross in a unique collaboration with the Royal Ballet, The National Gallery and the Royal Opera House, London. Performances took place in summer 2012, with an exhibition at the National Gallery and a 182-page illustrated book. Wallinger produced new work for the exhibition, with set design and costume for ‘Trespass’, one of three new ballets in response to Titian’s masterpiece. Wallinger collaborated with choreographers by Alastair Marriott and Christopher Wheeldon, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Leading poet’s Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage also responded to Ovid’s text and Titian’s painting.

The three paintings, displayed at the heart of the exhibition, are seen together for the first time since the 18th century. Wallingers research was further disseminated in the book (pp26-76) and in online videos and a programme of events. His new work at the National Gallery considered the myth of Diana and Actaeon in an installation, called Diana, providing fleeting glimpses through holes or apertures of a woman bathing,. There are six participants in the Wallinger artwork, each called Diana in real life, because the name itself carries such a strong residue of mythology, up to and including that object of voyeurism Diana, Princess of Wales. According to Nicholas Penny, the National Gallery's director, Wallinger's work "makes you think about the spectator's position in relation to art. For example, the idea of Dutch paintings and how many of them depict things you oughtn't be seeing – a woman being propositioned over a music lesson, or reading a love letter. The idea of privacy was becoming stronger in the 17th century, and with that you also get the idea of the violation of privacy."