Making Art From Maps: Inspiration, Techniques, and an International Gallery of Artists

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The differences in how it is being used are such that it is preferable to move to an alternate term, rather than attempt to impose a uniformity of meaning where that does not exist. In that context, I also briefly consider Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) central theoretical contribution to this area, the framework of space as a concrete abstraction.

When introducing a piece, I usually begin with a simple reflection routine, such as “ I See, I Think, I Wonder,” to gather students’ observations about the work. In contrast, the ‘Apollonian gaze’, or ‘Apollo’s eye’ [x] (Cosgrove, 2001) describes a viewpoint that is positioned outside the earth, at the level of a ‘god’, from which the earth is viewed as a spherical body, either fully or partially seen.As Bradford says, the works refer to “the conditions that are going on at that particular moment at that particular location. Everyone has their own opinion of where should have been included and what they would have on their piece.

I suggest that a continuity can be seen from these early, and interestingly spatial, works, to the form seen in Targets, in which visual pattern takes the form of map segments and comes to actively structure the viewing space and surface. This development has taken place in parallel with the emergence of geographical interest in western Marxism, and vice versa, from the 1970s, particularly in the French context (Soja, 1989).To the south-east of our position, Tripoli, seen here in conceptually either 1986 or 1998, faces eastward from a green Libya on to the Mediterranean. This world turned inside out captures something of the physical consequence of aerial warfare, in which buildings and bodies are ravaged and exposed. He says, “I was really thinking of mapmaking and also the history of abstraction because in some ways I look at maps as these abstract grids. If you need page numbers for referencing purposes, the book is available at some university libraries and most importantly the British Library where it can be read for free if you’re in London. He usually begins by gathering images of his subject from various angles, including archival photos and flying around the area at various elevations.