Alison Saar

Depicted with light skin and dressed in a black suit, the central figure in this print hangs upside down by his feet. Two Black faces, one male and one female, stare down at him from above. Saar’s choice of title makes reference to Ulysses, the hero of Homer’s ancient Greek epic the Odyssey. At one point in the story, Ulysses asks to be tied to the front of his ship as it passes by an island inhabited by the Sirens, the mythological creatures whose singing could cause sailors to crash into the rocky shoreline. Saar here places this ancient story about desire, temptation, and restraint alongside what also appear to be suggestions of racial difference or racialized violence. 

–SM