Map of Total Art

Description

Qiu Zhijie draws ‘maps’ based on concepts such as city and park. To Zhijie, mapping something amounts to a process of obtaining awareness. His map is a model for uniting personal and historical ideas. It can encourage new thoughts and insights.

Queer perspective

Have a look at these maps. Do they look like the ones you usually see? Do they look like the ones drawn by cartographers? These artworks are intersectional: the maps feature specific locations, historical dates and personal memories mixed up with Chinese calligraphy. At first glance, the maps look quite confusing. However, the artist uses traditional calligraphy for very personal ends, showing that re-appropriation of techniques or practices can give rise to new forms of creativity. Zhijie also designs parks and city maps as public spaces for rebirth, as a field for recreation, outdoor sports, public debate, and as a meeting place for love and desire.

%Queering is about this too. It is about allowing yourself to imagine otherwise, to think outside or beyond long-established categories. As a matter of fact, it means accepting the way others perceive the world.

%>Tags: appropriation, intersectionality, questioning, visibility

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