GILGAMESH 2009, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin | Photography Gillian Buckley

GILGAMESH is the oldest written story, and its protagonist sets out on a quest for immortality, only to be enlightened when he abandons his search. To be human means to dwell in the open-ended space of time, in defiance of the darkness of nature and hence to be governed by memory, which sustains the temporal connection between past and future. Looking at how a loss and fear of death underscores human behaviour, a personal narrative is tied to a historical and cultural narrative, drawing from undercurrents running through the epic story of Gilgamesh and the painting Le Chasseur by Caspar David Friedrich. The drawings, inspired by Gilgamesh and Le Chasseur, are governed by the memory of an intermediary place we find ourselves in before making that leap of faith.