Violence in the Maps
Paintings based on historical maps of Philadelphia's River Wards Neighborhood
"....To this day, the neighborhood is dealing with the repercussions, contaminants, and decline of its industrial past. Donna Backues began her series of paintings about this past with research, turning to historical maps and modernist philosophy for inspiration. As a self-described “outsider” to the region, Donna was able to further objectify these records — deconstructing, then molding these cartograms into emotional representations.
As Donna discovered by comparing various elevations of the region, these maps are not only biased—influenced by their cartographers, illustrators, developers, and colonial settlers— but inherently violent. Maps cannot illustrate a full reality and, through their additions and omissions, offer a version of history that primarily served the industry of the time.
If maps themselves can be reduced to a series of abstractions and half-truths, Donna’s work can be seen as an effort towards further abstraction, reducing these maps to their basic shapes and emotions. The sadness, vulnerability, and violence of this region’s history makes a return, alongside an acknowledgement of the hope, optimism, and humanity that persist alongside it.
Inliquid
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