Orange nation

Description

From the series “Nations”, oil and pencil on paper, 35 x 45 cm, 2015.

In these drawings I create a map of an imaginary nation. The invention starts with the tracking on a perimeter that is the boundary. Within this boundary, with colored backgrounds, dashes and symbols, I can create new meanings and hierarchies between the various areas. But of course, everything is invented, and the more I can get away from real cartographic representations, the more the original significance weakens and gives way to new, unexpected interpretations.

The point that originally represented the position of a city on the map can grow up to become a big bubble colored and decorated with new symbols, the tracks indicating roads and paths can be deformed and can be enriched with textures and hatches that change the meaning, the same boundary may vary in different parts of the map, becoming thick or thin, light or dark, hard and defined or changeable and permeable. The final result is no longer about the geography of a place, but rather the representation of something abstract, like a memory, a mood or an emotion.