About 500 years ago, a wealthy and well-connected judge named Sir James Hales waded into the River Stour near Canterbury to take his own life. Hales rose to prominence under King Henry VIII, but refused to convert to Catholicism under the repressive regime of his daughter Mary and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
After his release in 1554, he struggled with his mental health and drowned. But as suicide was a crime at the time, his widow was disinherited and so took the matter to court, in a case that became so famous in the 16th century that it inspired Shakespeare’s depiction of suicide by drowning. inspired. Hamlet’s Ophelia.
Next week, that Tudor tragedy will be commemorated with the official unveiling of a monument inspired by his story and Shakespeare’s tragic hero, beneath the waters of the Stour in Canterbury, near where Hales took his own life 470 years ago. .
The work of art, called Ophelia, is by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, who created the world’s first underwater sculpture park near Grenada. Taylor, whose sculptures have been installed on reefs and on seabeds around the world, is originally from Canterbury and grew up in the suburbs of Stury near his home.
After another of his rigs broke down in the river and needed repair, Taylor became aware of the connection between Stour, Hales and Shakespeare after reading a blog post about the case by Amy License, a local historian.
“The whole story is about Ophelia holding on to the willow branches and falling in… I remember when the kids were holding on to the branches, we were rocking from side to side,” Taylor said. “So it was really interesting to hear that story.”
His recycled glass sculpture, depicting a woman lying on her back while her floral dress floats around her, is also deliberately reminiscent of a famous painting by Sir John Everett Millais. It is installed just below the water level next to the city’s medieval Westgate and is lit from within.
Taylor, who said environmental concerns were “the number one reason I became an artist,” installed sensors that measure the river’s temperature and clarity, which he hopes will become a dataset to share with local scientists. He is also exploring technology that would allow the sculpture to monitor pollution and nitrate levels.
“I hope people will ask more questions because they will be interested and fascinated and want to know more about the history of the river and Canterbury,” he said.
License said it was “very important” to keep stories like Hales alive. Noting that the judge committed suicide while suffering from religious persecution, he said that “the memory of Canterbury as a city of religious diversity is really important in this day and age. We have so many little stories that resonate today, I think they should be recorded and remembered. “
Stuart Ross, chairman of the Canterbury Memorial Society, which commissioned the work, said: “Canterbury has a lot of art and is famous as a heritage centre, but it doesn’t have a lot of new art. It’s so powerful because it’s new, bright modern art in a medieval setting. It’s very, very powerful and moving. “
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