-PROVFLUX ARTIST-
Place between Name and Space
by Anna Shapiro
Take a tour within the visual elements of a place. Use my artwork as an aesthetic guide. Let my artwork become a portal for you to enter on a journey of discovery of place within personal, social, political and ecological environments. The work may enter into the spaces of the familiar, ordinary, maligned or neglected. It is cosmic and cartographic, navigating spaces between control and disorder, real space and abstraction, macrocosmic scale and the tiniest microcosm. Most important is the integration of ecological systems, the intersections of human ecology and environmental ecology, linked visually in the elements of my drawings, sculptures and installations.
Segmentation is evident in maps caused by natural and man-made boundaries.
These boundaries describe the partitioning of every space and are easily transposed
to become metaphors for navigating both exterior and interior landscapes.
In my work I obscure the place names on the maps. Specific material location
is relegated to a place of obscurity. This absence of knowledge and history
is a dislocation. The anonymity of the map is juxtaposed with recognizable
objects. Here the realms of the domestic and the military come into play with
human form and cartography.
I create art that reflects upon location and emphasizes that location within
a greater social, political and ecological context. These elements are all
integral to my conception and creation of site-specific work, especially my
public artworks. In order to create the sense of place that is so important
to me I consider the community that uses the site. What is your purpose to
visit the site? What will engage you? How will the work present itself when
I am not there to explain it? How will it withstand the procession of time?
Anna Shapiro is an artist based in Boston. You can view more of her work at
www.wavelady.com.
