Julie Mehretu "Stadia I" (2004)

This is Julie Mehretu. (badass photie right?). She is an Ethiopian-born American artist who won the McArthur Award (aka Genius Grant) in 2005. She also is quoted as saying: "Maps aren't necessarily truths." I friggin agree! I'll have none of that "in this day and age, technology is certainly advanced enough to make a precise map" bologna. Just think about shrinking the size of massive spaces into a digestible collection of grids and tree clumps and suddenly the accepted validity of maps seems absurd. It's crazy to think about (and thus all the more tantalizing) cuz damn my teachers and text books really convinced me, but I'm convinced maps are a human construct and ultimately a paper-based drawing of a nonexistent microland.

Anyway, Mehretu's work focuses less on what is inaccurate or misleading about maps and more on what is missing from the dry, structured classic. At first glance, her messy, complex paintings suggest the chaotic feel of a traveler's first glance at a foreign city's map. Her confusing layers encourage us to examine the spaces included in cartography. Her "maps" contain not just physical space, but political space and demographics. The first layers are architectural grids inspired by the conventions of map-making, while her later layers add new elements. The swirls of ink hint at the clumping and grouping of humans living in the depicted areas. In the image below (part of the Stadia series, which aims to collect the viewpoints experienced by the masses of people that occupy a stadium), rows of pennants and flags streak across the canvas in all directions and distances. Diverse colors and shapes provide templates needed to imagine any flag from any country in the world.

Without all this background info, I loved Mehretu's piece immediately. Aesthetically, I think it is spot-on and of-the-moment in such a precise way that I am incapable to express why. I just look at the work and smirk - she nailed it.

Julie Mehretu American, born Ethiopia (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1970)
Stadia I
2004 painting ink and acrylic on canvas

And finally, here is a song that reminds me of the piece. His voice is chaotic, unpredictable in its tonal changes, but the song as a whole brings so much joy.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)