Isaac Julien created the photo multiple Paradise (Omeros) No. 2 for FWM in 2002. Like much of his work, this triptych playfully explores seduction and voyeurism. The center image of an idyllic tropical landscape is complete with a waterfall and lush foliage. On either side of this photograph are two identical images of a nude young black man with flowers obscuring his face. The shallow depth of field creates an out-of-focus foreground, which makes the petals look like a kind of curtain, behind which the man’s body, in clear, sharp focus, coyly tempts the viewer. However, the flowers still cast a shadow over the man’s body, adding a further element of abstraction to the work.
The 2004–5 FWM film and video exhibition Experiments with Truth, guest curated by Mark Nash, included Julien’s three-channel work Paradise Omeros (2002). The title drew inspiration from Saint Lucian poet Derek Walcott’s extended poem Omeros (1990), which took its title from the name in ancient Greek of the epic poet, Homer. This video delves into the social, political, and emotional terrain of postcolonial identity through a richly imagined, elliptical narrative that exists outside the bounds of linear time to link two island cultures: a bleak, gray 1960s England and a bright, colorful contemporary Saint Lucia. Paradise Omeros constructed a deeply personal yet mythic narrative of the Caribbean diaspora and the Creole—a hybrid identity that encompasses multiple cultures, histories, and sites of origin.
