Maps

15 JUL 2014 | By Sarah Chen

The language of maps give instruction, direction and purpose. For artist Val Britton, maps represent not just physical spaces, but also the psychological and emotional spaces. Her works, which deal with 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional abstractions of maps, are a medium for her to connect to her late father, a long haul cross-country truck driver who died when she was young. The map as a metaphor for a journey consists of a beginning, an ending and uncertainty along the way. Piecing together different parts of the journey is a process of remembrance and meditation, an attempt at reconciling past and present, or the known and unknown. Looking at one of her works is like going on a journey, following the lines colours and shapes as they change and contour. As she mentions on her website, “In my work I often think about how the retelling of our stories, the reconstruction of our journeys, helps us make sense of the now, and how the retelling is its own journey.”