| 4b. detail mapping of surface | Observe and map a surface. Either at close hand or at a distance. DETAIL> maybe use grid to keep track of detail. |
At the start of this exercise at the end of August/beginning of September 2022 Pakistan has experienced the worst flooding for a decade. A third of the country is under water. This has been caused by a combination of very heavy rain during the Monsoon season and melting glaciers. Outside of the poles, Pakistan has more Glaciers than any other country.
For this exercise, therefore, I chose to map the flooding in a part of Pakistan, using a Satellite image of an area in mid-Pakistan that has been badly hit leaving many people homeless, many other animals dead and much of the land under water. Here is some information about the devastation:
I would like to have done a ‘before’ and ‘after’ mapping, as in the photograph below, but decided I didn’t have time for such detailed work on TWO images for this exercise.
I had started the work on this drawing before I looked at the work of the Vietnamese artist, Tiffany Chung, who we are directed to look at in the course information. I found that in fact Chung has already mapped floods. Her work is stunning, but I feel angered and saddened to see that she uses vellum (calf skin) especially since she is interested in social issues. (I see she uses vellum in the drawing below).
Chung’s work is described as follows:
Chung’s practice blurs the boundaries between anthropology, sociology and art. Her work is also reminiscent to that of an archaeologist, an aspect which is particularly evident in her work, an archaeology project for future remembrance shown at Galerie Quynh. Chung’s work is deeply rooted in the research and study of urban progress and transformation in relation to history and cultural memories; it carefully examines the shifts in the geographical landscape of places and their growth and decline due to conflict, migration, deindustrialisation, natural disaster, extreme climate impact and human destruction. Chung explores what she calls the ‘psychogeographies’ of a place in order to reflect the multi-layered relationship between site, map and memory.
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/vietnam/articles/vietnam-s-10-best-contemporary-artists-and-where-to-find-them/
I note that Chung uses the word ‘psychogeography’ in her work above, which I understand to be centrally about how environments impact the psychology of individuals – interesting therefore that no living beings are represented in her work, and the emotional experience of those impacted by these geographies can only be guessed. However, in Chung I have found another artists who is interested in examining social justice issues (albeit ignoring the pain her art itself causes for other animal species, which we cannot do, especially if we focus on examining the kinds of issues that are listed above. Perhaps Chung doesn’t that vellum is calf skin – many people do not).
I decided to work on PLIKE, which is an environmentally sustainable paper made from 100% sulphite, as well as being very smooth, very white and very strong. It’s an extraordinary paper that I have been using for different purposes for a number of years, but it is also expensive and only available from one or two suppliers. . I worked on this using grids, and inkonic pens which have a very fine nib. The ink tonic pens are vibrant, but fade considerably as they dry – I’m not sure whether or not this is related to the paper: it’s not an absorbent paper and I hadn’t expected to lose vibrancy like this – see the bright blue band in the middle below (no 155) which dries to a light shade of mauve. I have needed to go over all blue with a darker, different shade (no 186). They also take a little longer to dry than expected. On the positive side – they have a range of 120 colours and are very fine: the ink flows very well with no pressure needed.
It’s so disheartening to see not only how much these inks are fading and continue to fade on PLIKE paper but also how much they actually change colour, for example from blue to mauve. It’s not that I dislike the colours, just that they are not the colours I chose to make the drawing! This is the first time I have used a medium on PLIKE that I have not been entirely happy with. I’d expected the smoothness and whiteness of PLIKE to be a perfect surface to show off the brilliance of the ink. With this amount of fading after only a few days, or even hours) I worry that in a few weeks there will be nothing to see at all. (nb I don’t think that the same inks used a year ago have faded – I need to check to make sure, and also if I used PLIKE for any of them. Another possible reason of course is that I am using them in Portugal right now and they are exposed to a lot of sunlight, whereas the original ink tonic drawings are in a closed book in London, but I wouldn’t have thought sunlight would have such an immediate effect).
Side by side below to show colour change. So strange how the land on the top has turned pink – there is no pink anywhere near it!:
Reflection
I wondered about ethics while I was making this drawing. I wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing, on the one hand. On the other hand it represents a devastating event for the lives of many many beings – see above – at least 1400 human beings have lost their lives and 735,000 ‘livestock’ (what an appalling word this is – these are other animals of a different species to ourselves, but they are sentient beings who feel pain and terror like we do. ‘Livestock‘ turns them into objects of monetary value only. ). Presumably the 735000 animals are only mentioned because of their monetary value and 1000’s of other beings also lost their lives but were not worth mentioning? Anyway, I’m wondering, as I said, about ethics. There are a couple of reasons why it might be ethical to draw the flooded area – one could be that it raised MY awareness and beside making a contribution to the fund, I also thought, while drawing, of the beings affected – after surviving the flood many people are now homeless, and now face starvation, cholera and dengue fever (a virus that is transmitted by mosquitos that can lead to death if untreated). Many other animals are starving, wet and homeless. I thought above how this contrasts with the comfortable and pampered lives of those of us in the developed West/North (this does not, of course, mean that we are necessarily happy). A second reason could be if I were able to sell the drawing. I am not usually prepared to sell work. (I am in the extremely lucky position of not needing to. I recognise this is not the case for many people who make drawings). However, in this case I thought I could make an exception if all the proceeds went to the fund for Pakistan. The drawing has taken me about 60 hours. (I needed to go over the colours several times to stop them fading away too much). If I charge a measly £20 per hour for my labour I would expect a minimum of £1200 for the framed drawing. I will advertise it for sale on Instagram and Facebook. As I write this, today, 19th September 2022, I am also struck how there has been practically zero coverage of what is happening in Pakistan recently as all attention is drawn to the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and commonwealth. (another weird and wonderful word – we have wealth in common?)
In relation to my reflection on the actual drawing – I enjoy this kind of rather mindless detailed drawing. It takes on a restful meditative quality. It also does not need any decision taking once it is started – apart from which colour pen to use, and how often to go over the ever fading colours, before I accept the inevitable. (Some of these marks have probably been gone over one another 5 or 6 times). I like detail. I like the marks. However, it is not original – it is made from a copy of a satellite image. I’d argue that it is an inter-semiotic translation (Eccleshall, date). It loses something and gains something in the translation. It loses some of the detail and exactness. It gains because human labour has been spent on it, to mourn what is happening in Pakistan. I would also argue it gains something in the colour.
I could also have chosen to rub out the grid lines, or make them more faint, before making the drawing (they are drawn in pencil), but I made the choice to leave them showing. They are very faint but I like their inclusion because of their use in maps to give specific reference points.
There is a definite difference in colour in the blue between the left and right sides of the final drawing, but I need to leave this to ‘marinade’ to see what colour it finally settles on – then I might touch it up to make it more even. I like using grids – although there IS some slight loss in accuracy, this is quite insignificant.
susanaskewPAD 