Encore (Paradise Omeros: Redux)

Isaac Julien, artist

born 1960

Bick Productions, producer

New Museum of Contemporary Art, producer

Encore (Paradise Omeros: Redux), 2003

Portfolio/Series title: Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image, 2004

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: 4 minutes 38 seconds

Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2005.0007.07

On display: Simons Gallery

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Images

Label texts

Soundings: Making Culture at Sea

The Atlantic Ocean serves as a motif to explore the diasporic identity of modern-day Caribbean peoples. As images of the ebb and flow of sea waves cross the screen, the voice of the poet Derek Walcott reads lines from his epic poem Omeros. The title references the Greek poet Homer, and inspired by The Odyssey, the poem narrates the migrations and experiences of its Black subjects. Both Walcott and the artist Isaac Julien have ties to the island of St. Lucia, featured in the video.

Label Aug-2009:
This short DVD was produced as part of a collaborative series featuring eleven of the most acclaimed artists currently working in video, film and digital media. The series was produced under the auspices of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and each DVD included not only an original piece, but an extensive interview with the artist as well as stills from his or her oeuvre.

In his contribution to the series, Isaac Julien has revisited his 2002 work, Paradise Omeros, which originally debuted as part of Documenta XI, an immense, one hundred day program of installations and performances in Kassel, Germany. Like its predecessor, Encore (Paradise Omeros: Redux) deals with the fate of the African Diaspora and its attempts to establish roots in the New World; the film features Derek Walcott, a poet and Nobel laureate whose work is integrally linked to these themes.