Juliane Brandes - Ulysses 2020
In the long run of 2020, I’ve been busy with the book Ulysses by James Joyce.
Read it and didn’t read it!
The characters came alive through the language and the humour was very welcome to me.Â
This has resulted in a number of works that relate directly or indirectly to the book.
Although the place and time are very concrete, the text eludes a clear image. The time seems stretched by the vast abundance of the reading material and compressed in the clear primeval of the individual chapters.
Stretched into infinity, as if chiselled, layer upon layer is laid down. This is how chasing became my preferred technique. Time becomes a means of design and the metal can be remodelled again and again.Â
Many of my works refer to the chapter names which Joyce used as working titles.
The reference to the Odyssey wanders far back in time and at the same time points to the present; because in the year 2020, one could often move between Scylla and Charybdis.
