Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Map of the Week - Lordy what's wrong with this picture?

Now showing through May 17th at the Austin Museum of Art: "Lordy Rodriguez: States of America". Rodriguez was born in the Philippines but grew up in the United States. He "reconfigures" maps that are in the words of artdaily.org "at once distinctly familiar and candidly absurd." For example, Wyoming:

More from the artdaily.org review:
"By choosing to draw maps, Rodriguez explores formal relationships and semi abstraction without worrying about the representation of depth. His firm shapes and bright, translucent colors decorate the surfaces of his maps with playful, captivating patterns. While maps often assume an unquestionable authority of accuracy and fact, Rodriguez dismantles conventional notions of locale and geography through intuitive associations and personal narratives. These vivid narratives conjure up the viewer’s own memories and perhaps compel one to ask whether the United States truly look like those that we used to envision."


2 comments:

DrSchnell said...

I should try putting some of these up in class and seeing if anybody notices....

Michael5000 said...

These are cool... but I think the idea works better when the map type is consistent. Still, you gotta love map art.