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 teaches at the nearby Clifton School. He continues to be moody and detached. After class the Master of the School gives him a letter for the Freeman’s Journal.
Perhaps it is this “delivering a message” that prompted me to think of the episode, as an “Annunciation”, even though Stephen is no virgin and Mr Deasy makes an unconvincing angel … It’s an insecure base, but I chose to build the picture on it, borrowing from works by Fra Angelico and Piero di Cosimo. Falling coins hint vaguely at Stephen’s guilt at being seduced by gold.
Another addition, not much supported by the text, is the merging of playing field and battlefield. Those boys playing hockey in 1904 were likely, 10 years later, to be in Flanders. Their game is interrupted by ghosts from the future.”
Aidan Hickey