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).
“Ithaca was Ulysess’ home. Bloom takes Stephen home to No 7 Eccles Street. They sit calmly, drinking cocoa. Their conversation and songs fit between long passages of Bloom’s interior monologues, on such topics as the source of the water in his kitchen tap …
Yet June 16th 1904 ends in anticlimax. Stephen, the son, whose father has failed him, responds well to Bloom, the father, whose marriage to Molly barely survived the death of their infant son. But, despite Bloom’s optimism, there is no hope that these two lonely souls can complement one another.
Stephen abruptly rejects the invitation to simple domesticity and walks away, to resume his quest for immortality. Bloom conceals disappointment by carefully accounting for his day’s expenditure.”
Aidan Hickey