By choosing to represent Shakespeare’s The Tempest through a painting of a storm on a teacup, Gabriel Gomes and Kristy Wong manage to convey not only the fragility of power in the play, but also to portray a visual pun on the saying “tempest in a teacup”—in this interpretation, The Tempest shows how a small event can have global consequences.  The gold paint in the interior of the hand-thrown ceramic teacup can make the project resemble an island when viewed from above, while the color scheme brings to mind the colors associated with royalty and power. Additionally, the choice to depict the play as a storm on a teacup calls to mind not only the characteristic association of England with tea, but also implicates the global imperial domination at the heart of even the most English of symbols: tea, after all, as well as most teacups, are symbolic of trade with, and English attempts to dominate, East Asia, and the sugar traditionally added to tea of course would come from Caribbean plantations. In this way, Gomes and Wong shows how English culture, from tea to Shakespeare, relies on colonialism and global trade.

Wong also contributed a line drawing on card stock and a painting on canvas. The line drawing uses an optical illusion to blur the boundary between the ship and the storm, while the painting, which is also outlined in blue ink, suggests connection beyond the borders of the canvas. Seen together, these three artistic works demonstrate the narrative and chronological instability of The Tempest, and the potential for multiple possibilities to exist simultaneously.

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