Paradise Omeros delves into the fantasies and feelings of "creoleness" - the mixed language, the hybrid mental states and the territorial transpositions that arise when one lives in multiple cultures.
Using the recurrent imagery of the sea, the film sweeps the viewer into a poetic meditation on the ebb and flow of self and stranger, love and hate, war and peace, xenophobe and xenophile.
Paradise Omeros is set in London in the 60s and on the Caribbean island of St Lucia today and is loosely based on some of Derek Walcott's poems from Omeros. The Nobel prize winning poet Derek Walcott and the musician and composer Paul Gladstone Reid collaborated with Julien on the text and the score for the film. Paradise Omeros is co-scripted by Isaac Julien and Grischa Duncker.
19'30'', three-screen installation, 16mm film transferred to digital, sound
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Paradise Omeros
Photographic artworks in Paradise Omeros series
Before Paradise, 2002Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Before Paradise, 2002
Tryptich of pigment ink print100 x 100 cm (each)
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Hate, 2003
Digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rap 308gsm
44 x 61 cm
17 3/8 x 24 1/8 in
Love/Hate, 2003
Eight gold-plated rings
Love, 2003
Digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rap 308gsm
44 x 61 cm
17 3/8 x 24 1/8 in -
Paradise Omeros
Installation Views
The New Human: You and I in Global Wonderland. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2015
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
The New Human: You and I in Global Wonderland. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2015
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Black Box. Edinburgh College of Art, 2003
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
The New Human: You and I in Global Wonderland. Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2015
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Black Box. Edinburgh College of Art, 2003
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Installations II: Videos from the Guggenheim Collection. Bilbao, 2010
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Installations II: Videos from the Guggenheim Collection. Bilbao, 2010
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Installations II: Videos from the Guggenheim Collection. Bilbao, 2010
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
documenta11. Kassel, 2002
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
documenta11. Kassel, 2002
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
House of World Cultures, Berlin, 2004
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
documenta11. Kassel, 2002
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
Isaac Julien: Paradise Omeros. The Bohen Foundation, New York, 2002
20' 29'', 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, sound
