Cryptosphere : Mapping Paradise [Large modular sculptural system]

Abstract

Cryptosphere was an exhibition, residency, conference and publication based on my original research and artistic response to the map collection of the Royal Geographical Society, London. It was funded by the Leverhulme foundation and the Arts Council England. It was project-managed and curated by Parabola, a London based commissioning organisation. I systematically and rigorously documented early modern maps that considered mythical places as physical locations and developed a sequence of maps demonstrating the evolution of Western cartography from a mythological to a scientific framework. It was significant in that it was the first artist residency staged by the RGS. It also directly engaged with science and belief and was positioned within debates on post-secularism. It was interdisciplinary in scope with consultation and contribution from scholars and thinkers on this hybrid topic. Outcomes were an exhibition at the RGS exhibition space on Exhibition Road in April/May 2008, a book documenting the process and discussing the research findings. The exhibition consisted of a new installation whose originality was to embody my research into a large modular sculpture. An extensively illustrated book, ISBN 9870995872105, was published by Parabola with essays by leading academics and writers including Denis Cosgrove, the late Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Geography at UCLA, Denis Alexander, director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge, Dr Alessandro Scafi, The Warburg Institute and Rebecca Geldard, a London based art critic and Jordan Kaplan, curator with Parabola. A public symposium attended by about 60 academics, artists and the public was held on Friday 9 May 2008 with presentations from myself, Dr Catherine Souch, head of Research at the Royal Geographical Society, Prof Felix Driver, RHUL and Dr Alessandro Scafi. The outputs engaged contemporary art and cultural geography audiences as well as audiences visiting Exhibition Road.