Exploring Grids & Connections

This in progress body of work highlights the subway systems of large cities.  It is a way to remind us that even though each city is different they still have the same foundations.  It is a study in the usage of the grid: a map as a grid, a subway route as a grid, blocks of colors as grids and even small squares of cut paper as a grid.  All four grids are juxtaposed together to show and emphasize the idea that we are all connected in this complex overlapping web.  It should remind us that we are ultimately connected through a mass chaos of overlapping linear networks.

The first mixed media collage represents New York City.  The photographs of the subway signs are imposed in their correct location on the map to remind us of our need to name and apply specificity.  Parts of the map peek through to remind us that we are all connected through the streets we travel on and that under our feet we walk a grid daily.  The different blocks of color represent how we sectionalize and break down areas of a city to remind us that we try to demonstrate organization when there is chaos.  The colors are symbolic of land and coordinate with the actual map so that the water is blue and the areas of the city that are parks are green.  It represents and emphasizes the idea that colors are energy and these colors are directly related to the world around us.  The small squares that make up the patches of color represent all of the people, the moving parts, and remind us that each person is a small square in a bigger composition. The subway routes are imposed over the map to remind us that they are a part of the city, but at the same time, are separate from the city streets.  All of the stops on the subway are marked by dots to remind us that in all of our busy movement we must stop from time to time to change directions or that we have arrived at our destination.  They represent a temporary end.  

Ultimately this body of work is meant to remind us that regardless of all of our overlapping grids we are all connected through the mass chaos of overlapping linear networks that we call life.

Upcoming cities in this body of work: Paris, London