Lotus Eaters
2023, Lotus Eaters – Friends&Strangers - 20-page tabloid publication 1000 copies, installation, video, metal sculptures, ceramics, miscellaneous objects, offset plates, chairs and tables from the exhibition place.
Touristes Tristes, (in collaboration with dylan ray arnold).
Lotus Eaters (Greek: λωτοφάγοι, lōtophágoi) are a community of people in Greek mythology who live on a beautiful island dominated by a Lotus-tree. They are very chill and hospitable, and upon the arrival of visitors they generously offer them food and nectar made of the Lotus fruit. The taste is so “fucking good” that those who indulge in it forget their responsibilities and plans back home or anywhere else. They no longer feel any desire to return, content to remain with the Lotus Eaters, floating between a sweet apathy and bliss. But things might fade, turn sour, or ferment in the gut. Once, in order to liberate them from the forever-seduction of the island, Ulysses had to trick his crew with force and strap them back to work.
Further materials for contemplation are provided in the presentation at the Mood Board -meeting room and in the printed Lotus Eaters – Friends&Strangers -magazine, a collection of images bringing a vision to life.
Presented in #holiday365, a group exhibition curated and commissioned by Porin Kultturrisäätö, Sotkamo, Finland, July 2023. With Touristes Tristes (dylan ray arnold & Océane Bruel), Paola Jalili, Riikka Keränen, Heidi Kilpeläinen, Mayumi Niiranen-Hisatomi, Olga Spyropoulou & Katriina Kettunen, Anna-Sofia Sysser.
photos : dylan ray arnold
