Place Mapping

I hope to blog every two weeks; it is nearly three weeks since my last entry due to a need to recuperate somewhat from an action packed July. I have spent august so far regrouping, focusing on marketing and studio work, so never a dull moment!

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Artistic jargon is a law to itself. A word I come across nowadays is place mapping. What does it mean to me? I just wrote about Stitching Stories; another aspect of narrative art talks about places and journeys.

I was not familiar with the term place mapping when I created “Home”, an upfront collaged mixed media piece created for the Derbyshire Open Exhibition. It is a statement about sprouting roots in a small Derbyshire village. I felt boosted by receiving a commendation for this work as I enjoy seeing mixed media rewarded! I used torn pieces of map here, as well as recycled bits of wrapping paper and scrim. This is place mapping for me, talking about belonging, location and mapping out the place: you can see Upper Dovedale where two rivers begin, the Dove and the Manifold.

A year later I created a series of five pieces called ‘Advent Stars’ quite consciously place mapping, picking out five significant stations in my life. The final one, again talks about coming home in a different culture and settling here in the Peak District. Each piece has a torn map only vaguely concealed and makes use of stitching, symbolic for the fabric of a place.

My first visit to Orkney without much warning took me by storm and demanded some place mapping! I dived into history and language to include past layers of the place where history is so vividly present in the experience of today. I will continue to tell stories about places from now on, on second thought maybe I always did.

Ingrid