Stars and stripes

2010 – 2013, acrylic and paper on canvas, 5.38 x 2.18 meters (17.6 x 7.15 feet), [50 x 40 cm (19.7 x 15.75 in) each, 50 canvases total]

The single most quality that helps us identify geography is shape.  Take those boundaries away and an ambiguity sets in blurring relationships that allow us to ground ourselves.  Take everything else away and the vastness and iconic territories are distilled only to the place names held within those borders.

This piece is about taking the context out of the 50 states in America.  Each territory is giving the same size canvas and on that canvas are all the places names from that State, randomly scattered.  From afar, density and color is now the gauge in identifying contextual localities.  Up close, the jumble of names become familiar and repetitive.

Stars and stripes, 2010 – 2013, proposed installation view

© andrew m. wenrick,  2010 – 2013