Boomtown

Boomtown is a psycho-geographic

space created in response to the state of flux that technological and cultural architecture seems to be experiencing. I perceive this state of flux to coming from narratives of progress surrounding the tech industry and narratives of decay coming from state of the environment and the current economic climate. I have thus located my drawings between Utopian cities from those of wold’s fair and science fiction and images of decay and disaster of the likes of Hieronymus Bosch.

The Boomtown Map Drawings(pictured top right) are created with an “all-over” visual strategy that avoids a ‘centre’ or artificially created focal point. The Detail is arrayed on the page in a density that can be described as horror vacui (latin for fear of empty space). The term has been used to describe art history to describe diverse works from renaissance engraver Jean Duvet to contemporary artist Kim Moodie. These compositions possess an obtuse spatial relationship where linear perspective is warped or thrown out all together. InBoomtown, the architecture conforms to a perspective grid but the sense of scale get confused when objects are compared to one another.

When presented with this experience the viewer is lured in by the images that offer themselves for exploration and discovery. The re-configuration/conflation of signs puts the viewer in the midst of an adventure in which he/she must reconcile and make sense of the images. They enter a process of discovery, trying to reorientate themselves to the new visual environment. This approach is similar to the creation ofBoomtown, where the searching for reference points mimics my own search for reference in a cultural terrain with constantly shifting booms and busts; speaking to the uncomfortable, yet ever present tension between making and unmaking of the world.

In Contrast to the tight pencil marks of the Boomtown Maps, the Black Holes and Void Series (bottom right). Use a more varied type of mark. They represent the forces changing the states of Boomtown.The Black Hole series uses an additive mark making process that relates to the build up of force behind an idea that shapes the creation of Boomtown. The Void series uses a subtractive method that tears the fabric of Boomtown to its threads, allows for something to to fill the newly created void.