Originally staged for the 2024 opening of Martine Gutierrez’s exhibition Anti-Icon: Apokalypsis at The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver, Odysseus and the Sirens reimagines Odysseus’s encounter with the enchanted beings. In Gutierrez’s performance, the sirens are not birdlike beings but rather long-haired mermaids. And unlike Homer’s The Odyssey, in which Odysseus instructs his crew to resist the sirens’ song by plugging their ears with wax, in Gutierrez’s version the sailor succumbs to his seducers.
Performers include Gutierrez and Polygon Gallery curator Elliott Ramsey, along with Blake Abbie, Nash Glynn, YoungGun Lee, and Bhenji Ra.
In 2026, a filmed version of the performance was presented on The Polygon Gallery’s online platform Parallelogram.
Produced by Jen Sungshine
Editing and Sound by Daniel Phillips
Cinematography by Aidan Chin and Alger Ji-Liang
Music by YoungGun Lee