Artist Biography
Isaac Julien was born in London, England, where he currently lives and works. Julien attended St Martin's School of Art, graduating in 1984. He founded the Sankofa Film and Video Collective in 1983-84, and was a founding member of Normal Films in 1993. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for The long road to Mazatlán, 1999, made in collaboration with Javier de Frutos. Earlier works include the documentary Looking for Langston, 1989; the Cannes prizewinning Young soul rebels, 1991; and Frantz Fanon: Black skin and white mask, 1996. Isaac Julien is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University and the Whitney Museum of American Arts' Independent Study Program. He is currently Visiting Mellon Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2001 Julien was the recipient of the MIT Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts. In 2003 his video installation Baltimore won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunstfilm Biennale, Cologne. Exhibition venues in 2005 include Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MAK Center, Los Angeles; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. A re-working of Paradise Omeros, titled Encore (Paradise Omeros Redux), 2003, is currently being shown at Tate Modern, London, UK.
Works
Paradise Omeros 2002
Artist Statement
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.
Press Release, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK, Isaac Julien: Paradise Omeros, Baltimore, 9 September – 11 October, 2003
Paradise Omeros has been commissioned by the Bohen Foundation.
Produced by the Bohen Foundation, Paula Jalfon and Colin MacCabe for Minerva Picture Company Limited.
