la colle issue #5- MAPS- now out!

The 5th issue of la colle is now out!

Exploring maps in 28 pages, issue 5 includes:

• collages by 10 artists from Michigan, Illinois, Oregon California and North Carolina
• questions answered by cartographer and collage artist Denis Wood
• lists of intriguing books about maps
• artists who work with maps
• a list of maps in songs.
• Current and upcoming collage and map exhibitions (also listed below).

If you submitted a map collage (THANK YOU!), your complimentary issue will be mailed soon.

If you would like to purchase this new and exciting issue it will be posted shortly on http://www.juliejean.etsy.com/ and will also be available at Quimby's in Chicago (http://www.quimbys.com/). Only with your support and/or collages will la colle continue to exist.

The next issue of la colle will be assembled sometime in Winter 2008 or early 2009. The theme will be Clothing (which could also, but does not have to, include fashion). More details to follow.

Collage and/or Map Exhibitions
Maps: Finding Our Place in the World
March 16 – June 8, 2008, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MA
http://www.thewalters.org/maps/finding.html
Baltimore, like Chicago, is also having a Festival of Maps, March 16 - June 8, 2008 http://www.baltimorefestivalofmaps.com/

The Story of This Place: Charm City Remix, Kianga Ford, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore http://www.contemporary.org/exhibitions.html#kianga
http://www.contemporary.org/kiangafordfile.php

Jasper Johns Gray, Through May 4, 2008, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/jasperjohns/works.html

Collage: The Unmonumental Picture, The New Museum, NY
Exhibition closed March 30, 2008 but an exhibition catalogue was published. Images and audio available online. I was particularly impressed by Mark Bradford’s work, a dramatic presence when one stepped off the elevator, Martha Rosler’s series Bringing the War Home and John Stezaker’s Film Portraits. http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/5

Far From Home, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, through July 13, 2008
Includes the brilliant work by Jane Benson, Mirror Globe (Map of the World), 2006, who plays with the idea prevalent in older maps that they present an accurate reflection of the world, Benson updates this notion, using such a map as the base of her work, with a disco ball, reflecting, but only pieces, of the viewer and the immediate in front of the map. http://ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions/farfromhome/art.shtml and a second link about Benson’s Mirror Globe http://janebenson.net/disco_globe/discoglobe5.html

Time is Of the Essence: Contemporary Landscape Art, Asheville Art Museum, NC
Through June 22, 2008
Includes Maya Lin’s Altered Atlas, 2007, made from a recycled atlas and a photomontage by Ken Fandell.
http://www.ashevilleart.org/current-exhibitions/time-is-of-the-essence-contemporary-landscap.html

Julie Mehretu: City Sitings
Previously at the DIA in Detroit (closed March 30, 2008)
April 19–July 27, 2008, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

August 17–November 30, 2008, NC Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
http://www.wcma.org/press/08/08_Mehretu.shtml
http://ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming.shtml

Call for Map Collages- Issue 5 of la colle, the collage zine!

“A map is a dream, an idea, an action, an emblem of human endeavor. It instigates adventures... Careful perceptions of our surroundings have always been matters of life and death.” -From Vincent Virga's Cartographia
Virga has also said, “The science of mapmaking is still alive, but we’ve lost the art.”

This is a call to put the art back into maps!
Maps are fascinating and powerful.

A map is an abstract conception of a place. The person who made had to make choices about what to include as well as what to leave out. Each map is thus a reflection of its maker. While maps are made by people working for corporations these are tons of individuals making maps right now that are staggering, mind-blowing, poetic, helpful, revealing, beautiful, not interested in aesthetics, life-changing and more.

In my new-found love and fascination and excitement about maps, the next (the 5th!) issue of la colle, the collage zine, will be devoted to maps.

Below are some artists, maps, exhibits, projects and websites that I have come across recently and they may help challenge your notion of a map.

When preparing your submission keep in mind that the zine is photocopied in black and white on legal paper. While there is room for one center-fold (or I guess two if you think about the cover) 8 ½ x 14 other collages will be reproduced on 8 ½ x 7 spaces.

This issue will come out sometime this spring, so submit you map collages by March 31, 2008. You can send you map collage (a hi-res, 300 dpi image) to my yahoo address juliejeanus or if you prefer to mail it, e-mail me and I’ll send you my mailing address. Also feel free to pass along any map-related songs, books, exhibitions, websites or exhibition reviews you’ve written along. If you submit a collage you will receive a free issue of la colle in exchange.

Here are some ways other people have approached maps lately (some collage and some not) to inspire you:

Get Lost! Artists Map New York City- Francis Alys, Marcel Dzama, Thurston Moore and so many more!!!!
http://www.newmuseum.org/assets/general/getlost/index.html

'Cartographia' Showcases Maps as History, Art
Vincent Virga's Cartographia- where the quote above came from.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17173936&ps=bb2
and an interview with Vincent Virga http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/around-town/24170/i-am-legend

An Atlas of Radical Cartography
http://www.an-atlas.com/

Lia Perjovschi’s Globe Collection and Mind Maps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMkcZQEkIQ4 and
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/learntoread/artistinfo.shtm

elin o’hara slavic- Protesting Cartography or Places the United States has Bombed
http://www.unc.edu/~eoslavic/projects/bombsites/index.html

Saul Steinberg’s View of the World from 9th Avenue
http://www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org/gallery_24_viewofworld.html

3CS: Counter-Cartographies Collective
http://www.countercartographies.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

subROSA- Can you see us now?
http://canuseeusnow.refugia.net/

Creative Mapping- A blog dedicated to the creative use of maps in art!
http://creativemapping.blogspot.com/

Festival of Maps- A whole festival of maps in Chicago! Started in November and continues into 2008
http://www.festivalofmaps.org/index.aspx

Fallen Fruit- Maps can feed you!
http://www.fallenfruit.org/maps.html

This American Life of course has also been interested in maps:
Episode 110- Mapping- the episode where I learned about Dennis Wood’s book, The Power of Maps.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=110
You can see images of Dennis Wood’s maps of pumpkins! Manholes! And street lights! http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisamericanlife/sets/72157602618985796/

Also, Episode 136 You are Here
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=136

Guillermo Kuitca (go in a few pages of his work to find his maps)
http://www.speronewestwater.com/cgi-bin/iowa/artists/record.html?record=6

Map This!- Exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Foundation January 10– March 21, 2008
http://www.architecture.org/exhibitions.html#buck

I am America. (And So?)
By Wyatt Mason, December 2, 2007, NY Times Magazine
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/magazine/02wwln-lede-t.html?_r=1&ex=1197262800&en=9e9b87bdcecb1a62&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Mapping the Self- November 3, 2007 - March 2, 2008, MCA Chicago
http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=166

Making Maps- deals with questions like What is a Map? And Why are you making a map?
http://makingmaps.owu.edu/

And best of all, the fabulous map you are going to make.