The Crawford Art Gallery is proud to present the exhibition [C]artography: map-making as artform which seeks to explore the techniques and styles of early map-makers, as well as focus on contemporary artists who use mapping methodologies in their art practice, often for very different reasons.

The earliest map in the exhibition, printed in Ulm in 1482, a colour woodcut, is a copy after Ptolemy’s ancient map of Ireland. More recent maps include examples produced by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, the Royal Irish Academy and computer digital maps produced by the Department of Geography, University College Cork. The exhibition also includes exquisitely crafted early maps by Richard Blome, William Petty, John Speed, Abraham Ortelius, John Rocque and others.

These early maps and present day computer digital maps will be seen alongside works by Kathy Prendergast, Frank Bowling, Grayson Perry, Stephen Brandes, Jeremy Deller, Mona Hatoum, Dorothy Cross, Tom Molloy and other contemporary artists who explore the relationship between cartography and memory, imagination and meaning. Each work in Mariele Neudecker’s series of Memory Maps, (1996) is a record of an individual’s attempt to remember the political world map. In Satomi Matoba’s , (1999) we have, at first glance, a credible map of a detail of Scotland. On closer examination Kyoto can be seen next to Cheshire, London just north of Inverness, the British Isles melded with Japan. Our expectation of the world map is yet again subverted and we are left on shifting ground. The exhibition features work by Cornelia Parker, Rita Donagh and Patrick Ireland who use mapping techniques to introduce political commentary to their work.

Participating contemporary artists: Frank Bowling, Stephen Brandes, Jon Brunberg, Dorothy Cross, Jeremy Deller, Rita Donagh, Jimmie Durham, Clodagh Emoe, Simon Faithfull, Gary Farrelly, Brian Fay, Tim Goulding, Mona Hatoum, Sean Hillen, Patrick Ireland, Kim Jones, Chris Kenny, Tom Molloy, Satomi Matoba, Mariele Neudecker, Eamon O'Kane, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Kathy Prendergast, Tim Robinson and Chris Wilson.

[C]artography: map-making as artform provides a context for viewers to engage with maps on many levels, not least on a level of fascination with detailed representation of the world, but also in the information they reveal, distort and often hide

A full colour publication will accompany the exhibition with commissioned essays by art writer Mic Moroney, William Laffan and Professor William J. Smyth of the Department of Geography, University College Cork. The catalogue will be launched on 18 September.

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Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Woodcut

    A relief print made by printing from the top surface of a plank of wood into which a design has been cut with gouges or knives. The cuts (which show up white in the print) are usually quite bold because of the texture and grain of the plank, whether hard or soft wood. This term is broadly used to cover any print from a wooden block.