Part of Aidan Hickey’s Ulysses series, which was exhibited in Zurich, at the UB Law, as part of the exhibit “James Joyce, Ulysses, and the Law” (April 15 to May 18, 2025).

“Stephen, now in full existential crisis, walks on Sandymount Strand.

The scene echoes images from Caspar David Friedrich. I placed Stephen in a void … with Howth and Dublin city on the distant horizon. He is terrified by thoughts of his mother’s death, his failures as a son and the uncertainty of his future. In the depths of despair he imagines that the crunching shells beneath his feet are the skulls of new-born babies.

Only the distortions of Expressionism could hint at such anguish. The episode’s mood is better revealed by congealed paint and gnarled seaweed than by the drifting mists of Romanticism.”

Aidan Hickey

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