In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three, King Solomon expresses his view of time in the form of a poem. Each couplet describes two seasons that are paradoxically related to one another. For example, there is a time for war and a time for peace. Each season can be experienced in one lifetime, and each person may experience a number of these events in their own unique order and fashion. Transpose these seasons to stops on a subway map and you have a complex system that represents a lifetime of sharp turns and linked passageways. Now, the map may imply a certain rigidity. A person can only visit one stop at a time; never two at once. Thus, we find ourselves on a linear narrative that can only go in one direction at any given time.
Maps and diagrams are useful tools that provide information needed to navigate and to decipher complicated or abstract ideas. If I said I wanted to “map something out,” you would imply that I want to explore something. I would want to plan the unfolding of an event in my favor. The drawings inside the cave at
the future of the tribesmen. If a successful hunt is portrayed on the wall then it hopefully transforms into a prophesy about the next days’ events. They drew what was anticipated. Similarly, the hope of what is looming ahead becomes the subject of my artwork. This process is not to predict the future or even to dream of it. Rather, it is a simple contemplation of the unknown.
The use of the intaglio process has been a great starting point for this line of thought about finding my place. The process leaves ample room for contemplation and meditation, as it is repetitive and time consuming.
More recently, this act of mapping has turned its attention to local demographics. The sectioning off of neighborhoods according to wealth, race, class. How does the wealthy view a town’s history? The poor? Continuing with the aspect of the unknown—these invented histories—and combining that with the hard “facts” of anthropology, I’ve been able to thoroughly explore my place in the community of
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I can't see the Langley picture!
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