This site-specific installation was composed of over 300 drawings called maps that I have been
creating from late 1998 until now. They refer to different geographical locations in U.K.,
Portugal and the US and depict different bodies of water. I drew the majority of these drawings
on paper. For this specific installation I also created maps on large acetate sheets. I hung the
drawings on paper on the walls with small nails and the drawings on acetate behind the windows
and in a corner of the gallery with steel wire. Because of the transparency of the acetate, the
drawings were visible from both sides. The viewer could look through them and see the other
drawings on the walls from outside the gallery or see the back of the drawings blending into the
outside space from inside the gallery. I also executed a drawing on a white shirt and pair of
pants while the guitar player Sam Osteen was wearing them at Oak Harbor Beach Park (the place
where I go to draw the maps daily). He played a soundscape on electric guitar wearing this
shirt-pants map during the artist's reception. Later on I added this drawing to the installation,
suspending it from the ceiling with steel wire.
Once again I covered the floor with rock salt. The mineral blended the floor and the walls of
the gallery together creating a surreal space infused with whiteness. The salt crystals and the
drawings on acetate sparked like water under the artificial lights of the gallery and the
'crunchy' sound produced by the viewer walking on the salt echoed the sound of human steps on a
beach.
In Water2 I created an environment where different layers of drawings overlapped and mingled
to suggest the complex interplay of shapes, lines, light and darkness that occurs on the surface
of water. It was also a reference to the layering of memories that accumulate, disappear and
re-appear in a fragmented state, some more vividly, some faintly. The text of the drawings is a
reference to our ability to articulate a language that despite of being our main mean of
communication it remains ambiguous and vulnerable to manipulation.
