Alternate maps
_context
Seeing things from afar gives you a new perspective. It is indeed something that brings many valuable things - hope, awareness, awakening, and humbleness. Things look calmer from 11,000 m. The business of the streets is at ease, the tension and noise are gone. The daily troubles feel so small and distant. Seeing yourself like a tiny dot on the endless map helps you realise of the vast reality out there. Moving your dot on the map and uncovering new lands brings so much richness and excitement to your life, that you cannot simply have enough of it.
I’ve been travelling quite a lot during the last month. Within the Netherlands, I had to move between Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Groningen for work. I took many trains and looked at myself as a moving dot on the map all the time. I took three flights to get from the Netherlands to Cyprus, with many obstacles on the way, such as flight delays, snowstorms and turbulence. I was calming myself by looking at the map and the way my vehicle was transporting my body for thousands of kilometers. I was calming myself by looking through the windows and seeing how stable the land is outside.
Drawing maps has always been an amazing therapy for me. It was the first drive I have since I arrived in Nicosia, in need of calming my soul after the long trip and during the ongoing struggle with long covid. At times when I was scared, anxious, and in pain, I healed myself, or at least gave myself strength to go on by holding tight to my acrylic marker. The lines on the canvas was leading me to a safer, warmer, happier place. I am still travelling, I hope I can get there safely.
_grid
The paintings have a place on a grid, where their names come from (hence their coordinates). When put together, the canvases make a big map, connecting through the lines (in the sense of exquisite corpses). The grid size is from 0-20 horizontally and A-M vertically for canvases, and from 0-20 vs. AA-MA for the hand-drawn cards.
_process
This new obsession started with some doodling on the tablet while watching a new TV series. It was shortly after I had arrived in Cyprus and had a long and painful journey due to many train cancellations and delayed + missed flights. I spent a lot of time looking at the map during the week before (google maps for navigation, dutch transport apps for trains, and flightradar24 for my flights). Maps have always been something that triggers me to draw and I guess it was why I started my "art therapy session" with this particular aesthetic. In addition, the TV series' setup was Iceland, which also always brings my memories of it as such a remarkable place. It always inspires minimalism in the way I draw and design. Thus, starting a few doodles in black and white, I decided to experiment with making them colourful acrylic on canvas.
_list of works
_list of canvases
The works on canvas are experiments in blue lines and neon-coloured blobs.
| No. | Title | Format | Medium | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | C-05 | 15x15 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 11-12-2023 | Gift to Ivan & Miryana, Nicosia // 01-2024 |
| 02 | G-14 | 28x35 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 13-12-2023 | Gift to Ambassador Dantchev, Nicosia // 12-2023 |
| 03 | K-04 | 28x35 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 18-12-2023 | Nicosia, studio // for sale |
| 04 | D-01 | 15x15 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon orange | 19-12-2023 | Nicosia, studio |
| 05 | C-16 | 30x30 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 19-01-2024 | Nicosia, studio |
| 06 | I-16 | 15x15 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 19-01-2024 | Nicosia, studio |
| 07 | H-17 | 30x30 cm | acrylic on canvas, white, blue & neon green | 02-02-2024 | Nicosia, studio |
_list of postcards
| No. | Title | Format | Medium | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | CA-05 | A6 | blue & neon green | 19-12-2023 | Nicosia, studio |
| 02 | ЕA-15 | A6 | blue & neon green | 19-12-2023 | Nicosia, studio |
| 03 | LA-11 | A6 | blue & neon green; crayon and acrylic | 19-12-2023 | Nicosia, studio |
_list of digital artworks
The digital alternations are further experiments. The works reflect on notions of memory and space. I started with reflecting on how the map changes in our minds over time - when losing parts of our memories, or distorting what we've seen and experienced.
| No. | Title | Format | Medium | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | FA-09 | HD | rgb split | 3-2-2024 | ▶▶ webshop |
| 02 | HA-17 | HD | rgb split | 7-2-2024 | ▶▶ soon to be published] |
_references & inspirations
★ Topographic maps
★ FlightRadar24
★ A Murder at the End of the World. (2023). TV Series.
★ The overview effect
★ Iceland
▶ more on mapping: mapping as an artistic tool