Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of the Arts, London
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a series of 9 photographs. Hunter was invited to work in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, who funded this two-year project.
Hunter based his contemporary reworking of scenes and lines from Shakespeare’s play on extensive research in literature, theatre, painting, dance and performance. This work extends Hunter’s long-standing research and visual representation of his local community of Hackney. He selected his cast from diverse groups in his neighbourhood: samba dancers, pearly kings and queens, schoolchildren, young people, a metal band and a pole dancer.
His contribution to knowledge is two-fold, driven by the twin directions of his investigation. The literary and artistic references transform perceptions of everyday environments and situations, and his photographs offer new interpretations of the play, augmenting its interpretations through Hunter’s visual re-staging in contemporary culture.
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was the first commissioned artwork by the Royal Shakespeare Company to be exhibited in their newly refurbished theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, five months 2011-12; the series was also exhibited twice in London 2012. Hunter gave two talks about his work at Stratford, 2011. An interview with the artist and footage from the photographic shoot was posted on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s website.
