The project investigates the latent locations of the home land of Odysseus, the hero of the Homeric epic poem ‘The Odyssey’. Travelling through the 7 locations that have been throughout the history of enquiry following the Odyssey, pictures were made by superimposing reversed negatives on plates of solid sterling silver. As the exact location of Ithaca is still a matter of debate, the works deal with each location democratically, and investigate the very idea of ‘home’ as a latent state, affirming and investigating the presence of the precious metal of silver in traditional photography.
'Ithaca' is a practice-based research project comprised of following artefacts:
80 images on solid sterling silver plates 8x10 inches in dimension
Salt sculpture composed of 30 kilos of four different kinds of table salt
7 carvings of maps on glass using a custom-made diamond cutter 20x 24 inches in dimension
24 text-pieces on vinyl
7 etchings on silver plate 5x4 inches in dimension
Sculptural piece made of 7 stones from the seven proposed locations and an additional stone plated in sterling silver
The Project was made possible through the Alice Duncan Travel Prize, awarded from the Glasgow School of Art in the summer of 2008. The project was disseminated through a publication in the Art and Research magazine (Glasgow), in LightLeaks Magazine (USA) and in the Periodical publication of the Scottish Society for the History of Photography and also through a series of talks. There were also 2 solo shows, one in Scotland and the other one in Greece, where the work was shown. Additionally the work was shown in 1 group show
The project was also shortlisted for the Morton Award of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2009
