The map room
In June 2021, I created ‘the map room’ as part of the Pandemonium show at the PZ Gallery, Penzance. It was an intimate space where people could come in, sit and explore my map paintings - telling stories of the impact that we have on each other and the environment.
The work was described in the publication from the show: “[She] has turned this sense of cartography into a philosophical position whereby she makes a stand in her bond with the planet---seen at a distance as a shoreline in Alaska or great rift in Ethiopia; or up close as in the bird’s eye view of her local park.
These map-makings are fragments only, often beautifully coloured; but like jigsaw pieces they hint at a bigger picture and they too ask the ecological and existential question, ‘What is our relationship with the world?’ A question never more prescient than now.”
The ‘Map Room’ at PZ Gallery, June 2021
What sort of maps would people like for them?
Through my art I am exploring the irrefutable bonds we have with our planet, but also want to engage people. With that in mind, I asked visitors to the map room to write on a postcard ‘what issue, story or emotion would you want a map to portray?’ and ‘what place anchors it?’ I had nearly 40 responses - every one generous and honest - providing a rich seam of content and insight for my next project.
The responses broke down into three types. The first were very personal reflections on where people were in their lives and what they were currently experiencing. From acceptance of ageing to a lack of outlet for ambitions. It was humbling to see how open people were - one asked for a map of their child’s brain with a specific profile of their autism, another shared a feeling of straddling two worlds and emotions.
The second were also personal, but about positive memories. They tended to start with the place where the person had achieved something or a holiday perhaps. I love the tiny glimpses these give of a life, like this one: “my family lived on this beautiful wild hill, in a grand house, and walked a few miles to worship on a Sunday at the local Methodist chapel”.
Together these personal postcards made up the majority of the responses.
The third set of responses were about issues. People asking for maps to reflect the Uyghur detention camps in China; plastics in the oceans; or homelessness in Penzance. Global and local issues were equally represented. These sort of issues are at the heart of my current work. So it is interesting to see that there were fewer ‘issue postcards’ than personal ones, even though paintings reflecting climate change, the last white rhino, the crises in Ethiopia, surrounded people as they wrote their responses. Does that mean that people didn’t connect to what the paintings were about? Or that they naturally wanted a more personal response? I am so curious to learn more. Thank you to everyone who contributed - I so appreciate you.
Map Room 2.0: the next body of work
Beyond the analysis, the answers people gave have been a wonderful source of inspiration. This is something that is really important after a show. It helps with the anticlimax, but perhaps more critically, it provides a continuity to my art practice that i really want to cultivate - a connection between paintings and people who have seen my work.
I am now building a new collection of paintings in response to the postcards, that I am calling Map Room 2.0. I am trying to ensure they span global issues and personal reflections to see how my painting responds to each. Here are two examples:
‘Rainforest deforestation’
captures a postcard that asked for a map portraying climate change and our impact on the environment, suggesting rainforest deforestation in South America as a place to anchor it. This is a map of Manaus in Brazil in dark pink, bright green and orange.
‘Climbing Pulpit Rock’
responds to a request for a place where something personal was achieved. Pulpit Rock is in Norway so the painting draws on the arctic environment, but also the sense of achievement in the pink and orange underneath the white.
These are work in progress. They work as maps and paintings, but do they capture the emotions or issues? I want to continue the conversation with them and perhaps even the people who wrote the postcards. My next blog will explore each in a bit more detail and I will be sharing the stories on instagram and in my email newsletter.
Whatever happens it will be enriching and I can’t wait to see what comes next.