Mapping Space

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 @ 2:45 pm

home, ink, leo belgicus, map, marker, metaphor

Goal: Use tracings (of anything) to compose an image
Method: Trace my future home to make a map of my present self

This was a very open assignment, as were most of the later-semester projects in my studio classes, that simply asked us to trace lots of stuff – anything we wanted – and assemble those tracings into a drawing. We did this over spring break, so we had 3 weeks to do it and finish our Mapping Routine project, so naturally mine became much more complicated than that…

I traced all the stains in the hallway outside of the sculpture studios.

This was a very big project for me, a good project, I spent as much time as I wanted being very careful and precise and purposeful with everything about this project, measuring out all the borders, placing everything carefully, keeping everything clean and neat. I focused very carefully, and worked very hard on this, and it felt a lot like a capstone to things that had gone on previous that year, like something I could lay down as groundwork or a statement saying “This is me now, where I’m going,” and I was free to move on from there. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had a rough few years lately, and this was the beginning of some real, solid, emotionally charged and fulfilling work for me. It’s a good start :).

Lions, tracings and map details arranged and placed, ready for projection and (re)tracing.

I took tracings of the floor outside the sculpture studios at school, because I’m going into sculpture next year, and I’ll have a studio there in my junior year. Basing my idea on the Leo Belgicus by Visscher, I found images of lions playing and fighting, and arranged the tracings over them to form land masses mapped over the bodies of the angry and playful animals.

Linoleum hand print stamps, hand-drawn decorative details and icons in the corners.

I arranged everything in Photoshop, and projected them onto the wall where I traced everything onto my piece of thick, torn-edged paper. Next, I came up with the names and subtitles of each of the countries, and printed them and the key text in the upper-right corner reversed. I used a transfer marker (just an AD/Chartpak blender marker) on the back side of the paper to transfer the printed ink onto my map. I drew everything in pencil first, then went over it all in Sumi ink with a small brush, and the hands making up the border are little linoleum stamps I carved out.

Off to build a home, with all its parts.

Belief and Action

It’s about building a home. The title of the map “Aedificium Domus” is literally “Building Home,” and the countries and their subtitles are: “Thought – here be monsters,” “Creation – birth,” “Feeling – heart-guided,” “Action – build your heaven.” In each of the four corners are symbols representing the countries, and the border made of hands represents the building of home, of home-building hands surrounding everything I am and do, and of hands being an integral part in my life. The sparrow flying out of the D in the title is symbolic of leaving on a journey, as sailors used to have a sparrow tattooed when they’d leave on a journey, and another when they’d returned.

The whole she-bang.