Pharmakos

Pharmakos 1. Oil, oil pastel and collage on card. 18 x 14 cm. 2007
Pharmakos 2. Oil, oil pastel and collage on card. 18 x 14 cm. 2007
Pharmakos 3. Oil, oil pastel and collage on card. 18 x 14 cm. 2007

E is for exile. These works contemplate the predicament of the displaced, and the complex relationship of belonging and separation from the home, or the place from which one has been uprooted, expelled or shut out. The title cites Jacques Derrida’s concept of the pharmakos, which references ancient Greek culture, where the pharmakos was a scapegoat or outcast, exiled or sacrificed as a means of atonement for the community in times of crisis. “The ceremony of the pharmakos is thus played out on the boundary line between the inside and the outside, which it has as its function ceaselessly to trace and retrace” (Jacques Derrida, Dissemination)