Nikki Rosato and Matthew Cusick

http://weburbanist.com/2011/05/30/creative-cartography-15-artists-transforming-maps/

  

Creative Cartography: Transforming Maps

Article by Steph, filed under Sculpture & Craft in the Art category.

Maps aren’t just two-dimensional pieces of paper depicting the locations and geographic features of the world. They’re the basis for portraits, sculptures and clothing, and are reconstructed or reimagined by these 15 artists in the most curious ways – whether recreated solely with typography, dissected and rearranged or used to illustrate information that can be humorous or disturbing.

Map Portraits by Matthew Cusick

(images via: mattcusick.com)

Matthew Cusick cuts apart maps to create stunning collages and sculptures, including these portraits. The Dallas, Texas artist collects maps and cuts them apart according to color and shade, pasting them into these compositions on a board backing. But the particular maps chosen also have meaning in reference to the subject: “The people I construct out of maps represent certain ideas and moments in time that resonate deeply with me,” he says. “The maps I choose for each work relate to that person’s timeline and history. I’ll use these maps as a surrogate for paint but also as a way to expand the limits of representational painting. Each map fragment is employed both as a brush stroke and a unit of information. The human form acts as a matrix in which inlaid maps from different places and times coalesce into a narrative.”

Head Sculpture by Nikki Rosato

(images via: nikkirosato)

Delicately interwoven like veins, the tiny green, blue and red strips of maps used to create these incredible sculptures are molded around a packing tape form to create a three-dimensional shape. Artist Nikki Rosato removes the land masses, leaving nothing but the roads and rivers behind, reinforcing the paper with wire as necessary. Rosato told Wired UK: “Through the removal of the land masses, the places almost become ambiguous since all of the text is lost. Unless someone really knows the roads and highways, it is almost impossible to identify the place.”