Artist Statement:
Peter Turchi in his book Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer(2004) states “ We organize information on maps in order to see our knowledge in a new way. As a result, maps suggest explanations; and while explanations reassure us, they also inspire us to ask more questions…To ask for a map is to say ‘Tell me a story.’” (11) After an extended hiatus from my artistic practice, in the past couple of years I have begun to reconnect to art making; becoming more focused and interested in cartography as a visual organization of knowledge and a representation of space and place. I have also been relating maps to my work quilting and recently weaving. I see cartography, weaving and quilting as physical manifestations of stories yet untold. Maps, to me, are signifiers of journey, where one is neither here nor there, but in-between. They stand in for a place/space when we have not yet arrived or have once been. Maps are the beginning and endings of journeys whereby points on a surface indicate a web-like narrative of stories and memories. Maps can teach us about space geographically but under all the points on a map are the histories of place and the narratives of the journeys to now. An idea that I am currently engaged in is that maps have rhizomatic qualities (supported by authors such as Dodge, Kitchin and Perkins, who suggest that maps possess a simultaneousness that is rhizomatic in nature). Rhizomes, biologically speaking are horizontal, subterranean root structures that spread by creating shoots from their own nodes. By using the metaphor of the rhizome, one can imagine the plurality of stories that ‘sprout’ up from a particular subjectivity, creating imaginings that are a web-like map of connection that creates a multiplicity of meaning and interpretation.
Infographics expert Manuel Lima in his TED talk states that we are shifting to a new metaphor of knowledge, rather than a tree of knowledge, the new image is a network that underscores concepts of multiplicity, interconnectedness and decentralization. This is a concept that I wish to embody in this project.
40 Yarns is about how maps are one way we tell stories, one way we remember and one way we chart and organize information. I wanted to highlight and bring out the idea of the rhizome by using points on a map strung together in a nodular drawing that would then connect to poems, short anecdotal stories, about the art community in Grimsby. Inspired also by the Jorges Luis Borges short story called either “On Rigour in Science” or “ Museum” about a map that is created as a simulacrum of the space it represents, the map also stands for the spaces we create, in this case, the artistic spaces that the Grimsby Public Art Gallery has fostered and supported in its 40 years of existence. I think the map speaks to the strength of the people as well as the strength of the arts and how the interconnectedness of how they work together to build community in ways that people might be surprised by. The points on the map are connected to a blog: https://40yarnsgrimsby.wordpress.com/ that community members are encouraged to contribute to in order to continue the rhizome in their own way. Maps are more subjective than we assume, I had to make decisions about this map and most were artistic and aesthetic. Although the map is to scale, I chose a road map rather than a satellite image because I thought the road map, with its exaggerated streets, made a better ‘drawing’ and easier reading. I chose to end Grimsby at Kemp Rd. on the south side because it made sense in terms of composition and construction. What was fantastic to me was during installation people wanted to note where they lived and the story of how they arrived and their thoughts on their community as we built it in front of them. I very much hope that this node in the mapping of the Grimsby community does not end here but continues through the blog.
40yarnsgrimsby 