For Homer’s Odysseus, his seven year captivity on the island of Ogygia at the hands of the goddess Calypso is simultaneously the beginning of his eponymous Odyssey and the conclusion of his escapades in the Trojan War. Ogygia is at once tropical utopia and prison, beginning of a journey and an end, a stage where a battle between desire and the shackles of fate plays out— on this island of multiplicities, nothing is what it seems and everything invites closer scrutiny.
The artists featured in Dreams of Ogygia present works that resist surface interpretations and invite viewers to relook, revisit and rethink. By taking time to engage with and contemplate each work, one can uncover the rich multiplicities within each work.
Kurt D. Peterson presents richly conceptual contemporary artifacts that explore entrapment, introspection and illusion through playful visual puns that delight as much as they surprise. In the recent abstract canvases by Wanti Amelia, she reflects not only on what the sea can offer as an archive of our collective history, but also on the future of our oceans amidst a time of human-driven ecological turmoil. For Leila Shirazi the intricate control humanity has exerted over the palm species— even on a genetic level— becomes a point of departure for ruminations on the intersections of history, ecology and industry. Her Elaeis Guineensis series utilises a painstakingly hand stippled dot-technique to give form to images of the oil palm akin to scientific botanical illustrations, while The Good Seeds draws inspiration from Iranian and Mughal miniature paintings.
Accompanying our selection of contemporary artworks is a selection of works by Arthur Fleischmann (1896-1990), created during his two year sojourn in Bali from 1937-1939. The photographic and sculptural pieces on display centre around Fleischmann’s Balinese model, Ni Runding, captured in various settings and states of expressiveness. More than pure ethnographic documentation, the artistic compositions and diverse representations of Ni Runding reveals Fleischmann’s respect for his model as a multifaceted individual.
Preview the artworks here.