Alex Hedison

ITHAKA  /  2008

Ithaka takes its title from the C.P. Cavafy poem of the same name. The poem begins, “As you set out for Ithaka, pray that the road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery…” 

Using visual narratives found in the landscape of the temperate rainforest in North America, Hedison explores both the core structures that frame the forest view as well as the seasonal growth with its own shorter cycles of life and death. In the images that form “Ithaka,” the dense layers of the woodland underscore the allegorical physicality of the journey from a recognizable place to one that is unfamiliar. The empty spaces become as pertinent as the subject with calculated attention given to capturing the shifting balance between absence and presence, shadow and light.

This series of large-format photographs first previewed in July 2008 for the press launch of Concrete + Glass, an art event that brought together over 25 artists to the galleries and art spaces in London’s East End. The same year, Hedison received a sponsorship grant from Barclay’s Capital and exhibited “Ithaka" in New York City as the opening exhibition for the New Yorker’s 2008 Passport to the Arts.