12/04/2021
This is my introduction to "Visual Cartography" that I will be explaining in video installments shortly. The first in the 'topography' series, is called "The Topography of Power: Arbiet Macht Frei" The original here is 5 by 9 feet and 3 inches thick. (it is not at all flat to further emphasize compositional elements) I posed in front of it (top of the page) to show its size. This is the first of 5 other epic works to be shown and then explained via video posts.
It is a pictograph schematic of how 'power' functions. It explores and exposes the irreducibly quantifiable aspects of 'power'. This work shows how the subject is put together, functions interdependently or directly, using the actual signifiers, faces, places and historical elements. It is a diagram, a working model, a map or ‘glyph’ of Power.
Artist's statement: Art is the echo of being human, and a human being ‘arts’ just as a tree ‘leaves’. There is the present living moment, and there is the re-present, or representational, which we term art. It clothes culture while laying it bare. But always the costuming, the custom, with or without intentionality. Art represents relationships, in a word. From the cognitive to egocentric. From cultural to personal. From science to fantasy. It is as old as perception, and as new as the perceivers' directed attention within 'the living moment'.
