Saturday, August 3, 2013

Edwards + Johann













C-type photographs, hand coloured with line drawing
20x30 inch (paper size)






The map is not the territory


A series of rocks - sky rocketing through a sea of colour. Hand coloured elements and map like linear drawings add to the object/structure in question. What do we see here? It may become a useful guide or assistant. Or just bewilder and expand the puzzle...


The title originates with Alfred Korzybski, meaning that a map can describe a territory in some similar structure that allows us to traverse the land, which gives us a useful tool, but that our perception of the map can never equal the territory, but only our version of it, our map. We may live in the present, but our thoughts reflect the past. We only have maps to refer to and nothing else. So the determination of what terrains our maps reflect to can present difficulties since any information, even if imagined or dreamt, can seem just as real to us as those that come from the outside world.








Edwards + Johann have been working together since 2007. They were finalists in the 2012 Wallace Art Awards and International Artists' in Residence in France and Scotland in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Currently they both live and work in Christchurch, New Zealand. 








1 comment:

  1. Just heard this from David Howard: The Edwards + Johann work The Map is not the Territory - Magenta meets Green has been selected as a finalist in the New Zealand Painting & Printmaking Award. Sponsored by the Philip Vela Family Trust, this is New Zealand's most valuable cash award for New Zealand painters and printmakers. The judge is Courtney Johnston, Director of The Dowse Art Museum and Petone Settlers Museum.

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