Mapped Out

Clare Brewster, The Harbingers. paper cut map

I  recently upgraded the software on my iphone, and it asked me if I wanted to activate location services, normally I'm on automatic when this sort of stuff takes place; I click the shiny button and don't think anything more of it but this made me stop and ask myself if
I wanted my position mapped, and stored on a server somewhere? Just a few years ago a solid physical map was an essential part of getting to know a new place, I must have bought at least 20 A-Z's during my time in London, their well thumbed pages with folded down corners, the odd travel card bookmark, Post It notes with scribbled addresses or collections of crosses or circles where friends houses were and as always the ever essential tube map on the back, now I have an app on my iphone with pin drops, favourite routes and key addresses all tucked neatly away behind it's smooth glass screen but it lacks the history and connection of my old A-Z and of a physical map. This month a new exhibition based on maps and our relationship to them, it has a wealth of artists who all have their own interpretation of maps. If you want to find out more about the exhibition and when it's on just click over to the Tag Gallery site where you can download a free PDF of the catalogue.

Emma Johnson, Dislocation, paper cut maps

Grayson Perry, Map of Nowhere, etching on paper

Rob Ryan, The Map of my Entire Life, paper cut