© Rosamond Purcell, *The Field of Cloth and Gold*, 2010 | Courtesy the artist and Abakus Projects

Written by: Madeline Lerner

As Shakespeare’s magical protagonist, Prospero, says in The Tempest, “we are such stuff as dreams are made on.” If one could capture their dreams in still imagery, they would look something like Rosamond Purcell’s “Landscapes of the Passing Strange: Reflections from Shakespeare.” Using antique mercury glass apothecary bottles, Purcell photographs the reflections of illustrated scenes of famous Shakespeare plays. Through this process, she has created highly symbolic imagery— imagery that could only be created with your mind, and not something one could ever see performed at the Globe. Just as a warped mirror may distort your reflection in waves and curves as though you are looking at it through a flowing stream, the landscapes in Purcell’s scenes seem to be in constant motion. If the bottle was tilted ever-so-slightly, the image may melt into something entirely different.

© Rosamond Purcell, *Descant on my Deformity,* 2010 | Courtesy the artist and Abakus Projects

At first glance, there are some recognizable figures and objects, though they have been blurred or manipulated, reminiscent of the melting figures in a Dali painting. With greater focus however, the patterns of light and color begin to piece together the reflection produced by the glass and mercury. While some knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays may provide interesting context, it is not necessary to admire the extraordinary imagery that Purcell has created.

© Rosamond Purcell, *Remembering Old St. Paul’s*, 2010 | Courtesy the artist and Abakus Projects

Rosamond Purcell is known for using found objects, usually antiques or objects related to the natural world, as the subjects of her photographs. This affinity with the natural world is activated especially in her piece, “An Art That Nature Makes,” referencing a line in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale. Purcell not only references how the natural world has influenced art but also intertwines this influence by creating her images using antique apothecary bottles, thereby touching upon an extensive history of the influences of art and alchemy on each other.

© Rosamond Purcell, *An Art that Nature Makes*, 2010 | Courtesy the artist and Abakus Projects

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, young King Hamlet says:

“To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of?”

As Hamlet contemplates the universal fear of death— a fear so great people would rather bear the burdens of life rather than explore the “undiscovered country” of death— Purcell magically captures that inscrutable image of what the afterlife may bring. In “The Undiscovered Country,” the blurred skull reflects the Vanitas-style imagery of that time period concerning the inevitability of death while also representing our own abstract understanding of what will happen when we die. In this afterlife, there are streaks of gold and light among the dark mountains in the distance.

© Rosamond Purcell, *The Undiscovered Country*, 2010 | Courtesy the artist and Abakus Projects

With the help of Rosamond Purcell, we are taken into new worlds. These surreal, haunting versions of reality incorporate horizon lines and silhouettes, imagery that is recognizable but distorted enough to appear as though we are in a dream. Pack your copy of Hamlet and see “Landscapes of the Passing Strange” at Abakus Projects in Boston through December 23rd.