Land, Sea and Air
New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Maps have continued to provide a potent source material for artists for many years. They provide attempts to create order from a world that is ever in transformation; whether in terms of physical manifestations such as the erosion of land masses or the rapid expansion of cities; or through shifting or contested borders, betraying evidence of conflict, resistance, negotiation and power. Maps also serve to support a sense of identity or an engagement with a specific time and place.
This exhibition brings together a diverse selection of international artists engaging in different ways with maps, and by extension, borders and territory. Paintings, drawings, prints, video, sculpture and installation combine to create a visually powerful and thought provoking exhibition. The selected artists vary in approach and their works span a period of over forty years. Consistent within all of these works is a combination of the personal, the poetic and the political.