The analogue component of this project consists of 18 hand-printed and drawn artist maps on paper. They include the first images I created when graticule was born a year ago at Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Art. I have been fascinated by maps since I can remember yet never thought to translate them through my art practice until one gray day returning from a trek in the Lake District. I am mesmerized by contours, abstract lines accurately describing 3d space. I had been struggling with some abstract mono-printing for a few weeks becoming lost in their chaotic forms. The contour gave me the tool to help tame and understand the prints and the grid locked it in place. Some would not be mapped but I would not be defeated. Overlaying sections of other prints onto the ‘un-mappable’ areas I was able to control forms with more power.

When the project was continued upon my return to Australia my maps loosened and the geographies escaped the grids. More emphasis is placed on generalization of form and contrast and the paper size increased.

Not unlike a cartographer I too employ subjective decisions in the creation of these maps and a vast majority of those decisions involve composition. I do not have the restriction of end use to dictate their outcome. No one will be using my maps to get anywhere physical. I am not highlighting or illustrating anything but the beauty of contour, grid and form. During their creation I came to the realisation that these maps were not representing space but actually creating it. Using a lot of ink in their creation the paper would invariably buckle. Initially frustrating, I realized the maps were creating their own micro-topologies through these undulations. Having folded a couple not unlike actual maps I realized that here too a micro landscape is being created, one that has a second grid formed by the folds.

My maps do not symbolize place they create it.

The titles of my 2006 maps actually reference a location found on the associated print through the randomly labeled grid system. A mistake can be found at each be it unaligned grid or faltering contour. Celebrating human imperfection I lament the loss of an ancient and beautiful craft.

Escapism is the driving force of all my work. Whether my maps provide escape from traditional associations e.g. a contour doesn’t have to represent continuous height, or escape into imagined environments it matters not. Both are relevant. Or of course the viewer may just want to escape the gallery

Enter gallery