Cartography?!

 

 

Cartography? Basically

the science or practice of drawing maps. A map doesn't have to be just your average how do we get from A to B it can be so much more and this is what the cartography workshop taught me. We use them all the time throughout of daily life without even realising it like for instance capturing a moment through a photograph, documenting/ recording/ organising all of these trying to recreate or invent a memory of something. Whether that be a journey, a room, or the relation between yourself and the world around you. For this workshop we were shown a range of art work that uses mapping from the realistic to the abstract. The examples of more conventional looking maps in art would be Richard Long's 'Concentric Days' 1996...

Although I love the detail Long has achieved in this and the time it must have taken to plot all the points is admirable, however I found the idea of the more abstract and unconventional cartography more intriguing. Examples included Qin Ga 'Site 22: Mao Zedong Temple' 2005...

This was as much a performance piece of work as a drawing piece that will stay with Qin forever. Qin took part in China's Long March Project (in 2002) this was known as a 'Walking Visual Display' which took place along the route of the 1934-1936 historic 6000 mile Long March. He decided to track the group's route on his back via a tattooed map. Three years later, he retraced the path of the trek, accompanied with a camera crew and a tattoo artist who could continually update Qin's 'map'. I loved this as the piece couldn't be labelled as one type of art or another and it was a sentimental piece that Qin can keep for all time. I have learnt that even the most tedious of journeys can be significant on our overall artistic journey and using cartography as part of my art practice could help me to become more familiar with my workspace and take note of inspiration in everyday life.