Odyssey in Neon
public art installation
Watton St. Weight Station, Werribee
1 - 31 December, 2017
Watton St. Weight Station, Werribee
1 - 31 December, 2017
Odyssey in Neon is a site-specific installation consisting of a red neon sign reading ‘O Muse’, installed in the historic weighbridge on Watton Street, Werribee, Victoria. The phrase references the opening line of Homer’s Odyssey, in which the narrator invokes the Muse—the divine embodiment of creativity—to help tell the story of Odysseus’s long and arduous journey home from the Trojan War.
O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus,
sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who,
after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy,
was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men,
the sport of their customs, good and bad,
while his heart, through all the sea-faring,
ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home.
Vain hope – for them.
The fools!
Their own witlessness cast them aside.
To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun,
wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return.
Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse.
O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus,
sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who,
after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy,
was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men,
the sport of their customs, good and bad,
while his heart, through all the sea-faring,
ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home.
Vain hope – for them.
The fools!
Their own witlessness cast them aside.
To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun,
wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return.
Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse.
– from Homer’s Odyssey, translation by T.E. Lawrence
This work was part of RED | Redux, the 2017 iteration of Wyndham City Council’s annual public art activation of the Werribee City Centre, which featured bold, dynamic red artworks as part of the festive season celebrations.
