Crypto
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Abstract
Hertfordshire Laser cut plywood, 0.6mm galvanised steel sheet 700cm(l) x 220cm(h) x 500cm(w) The main installation is based on fifteen months research into historical European mapping focussed on the role of ornament in maps and the depiction of mythical places including heaven and hell. The installation is a cartographically inspired architectural grid, attempting to contain ambiguous ornaments that, unwilling to be held by the grid's rigid embrace, spill out over the pavilion floor. The Ptolemaic, and later, the Jeffersonian grid, were powerful symbolic and empirical aids to the expansion of European power into uncharted regions of the world. In the sixteenth century the Ptolemaic grid was seen as a cipher for the crucifix and was conflated with the Christianising of savage peoples as its relentless geometry spread into unknown lands.