Typographies and Topographies

Two years ago exactly my collaborator Christina Gregor and I were putting together this epic installation called, "i'm thinking of changing my smile," covering half of the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Civil War era Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake, IL. 

Amongst many things, this exhibition has typography, topography (the landscape of a fantastic domestic space), and way-finding.

Typography. Seen below is the entry signage for the exhibition. As you pass between two curtains you walk below this free-hand machine-stitched (on muslin) fabric sign.  Very little planning, other than scale went into the free-form stitching. Loose threads, re-run sticthes, pseudo-ligatures, serifs and san serif fonts abound.

As for way-finding, even the map that we used to guide the audience around the installation appears to not take itself-seriously. How will wings feel against my face?

"i'm thinking of changing my smile" is about being comfortable in your own skin, in your own nest. If anything, as the work progressed into the installation it took on a life of its own as its creators' own abilities to differentiate between life and art or between a real-live domestic space and the illusion of an invented domestic space blurred the lines of dream, image, and reality.

Somehow we were left with images and the suggestion of images, objects and the suggestions of objects. The topography of the landscape was fantasy-filled and yet frighteningly real as we (the artists) pretended that we were not taking serious the very thing that had become poignant and real.

View in Mr. Dole's Billiard Room.

Mapping

Next week is my mother's birthday and out of the blue she called me up, as she does every 6 months or so just to say that she is more or less "in the neighborhood"--which means she is less than 2 hours away. So as my husband and I drove to meet my mom about 4o minutes away I began to contemplate what I have already been ruminating on: maps of geography and mapping the "inner" or "emotional" landscape of my self.

I looked for some good images on maps, from shops found on etsy--here are a few that interested me:

From http://www.hellobrowneyes.etsy.com/, a 1939 map of Africa. This interests me because I spent three months in Mali, in West Africa in 2000. It is fascinating how much the boundaries have changed post-colonialism.

In http://www.petitpoulailler.etsy.com/ 's shop, I found a NY State Map from 1935 of Autumn routes. Living in the Midwest I suspect I am missing out some incredible fall foliage!

From http://www.copperleafstudios.etsy.com/ I found a great image of a copper map of the Great Lakes. Very gorgeous and intense--and also very visceral.

I am also including an image of a work of sculpture of my own titled, "Tidal Self II" and is made of salt crystals grown onto cotton and maps an inner landscape. The salt water used symbolizes tears, and the tears represent the sea of emotion within.

Thanks to all whose items I have featured.