Isaac Julien

Love/Hate, c. 2006

Digital print

15.75 x 34.75 in (40.01 x 88.27 cm)

Edition. Printer's Proof (From the edition of: Edition of 100, 10 AP, 2 PP, 1 BAT)

Sold

Gift of Janet Lennie Flohr

Estimate $8,000 - $10,000

This print by British artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien is taken from his film Paradise Omeros, which follows its protagonist from contemporary St. Lucia to 1960s England, and back to St. Lucia, on an symbolic search for “home.” Based upon the Nobel Prize-winning epic Omeros by Caribbean poet Derek Wolcott, Isaac’s shifting narrative frames cultural references relating to the Westernized promised land. Love/Hate is taken from a scene where two characters speak of the perpetual battle between love and hate, where love always wins, echoing the protagonist’s struggle with his own post-colonial identity.

About the artist

Isaac Julien

b. 1960

Isaac Julien came to prominence in the early 1980s as a founding member of the Sankofa Film/Video Collective, one of the first workshops in the UK to explore new ideas of representing black identity. From his critically acclaimed documentaries Looking for Langston (1989) and Badasssss Cinema (2002), to his multi-channel installations such as Baltimore (2003), Isaac’s work combines dreamlike rhythms and lush imagery in stylized narratives. His films subvert the cinematic gaze to address stereotypes of masculinity, race, and sexual difference both head on and metaphorically. During his 1999 Artpace residency he wowed Texas with The Long Road to Mazátlan, which has now screened internationally and was the centerpiece of his Turner Prize nomination in 2000 and at Documenta 11 he took audiences by storm with Paradise/Omeros.