Politics of Place

Mapping the Imagination, Politics of Place, landscape, collage, Lake District, economic, social, contour lines, Africa, footprints, charity, famine, mud, journeys, poverty, food aid, dressmaking pattern, tea, coffee, stains, colonial, Britain, trade, commodities, human labour, map, legacy. power, tea-drinking, British empire, India, world, self-portrait, personal identity, rural past, urban

  • Conrad Atkinson, 'Landscape', 1980



    Conrad Atkinson (born 1940)
    'Landscape'
    1980
    Postcard with gouache and wash on paper
    Museum no. P.57-1980
    © Conrad Atkinson

    This collage centres on a postcard view taken in the Lake District, a popular tourist destination. Painted lines radiate from the landscape like contour lines on a map. Each is labelled with words and phrases calling attention to the invisible economic and social problems that pervade this seemingly idyllic setting.

  • Richard Long, 'Africa Footprints', 1986



    Richard Long (born 1945)
    'Africa Footprints'
    1986
    Collotype in brown ink on paper
    Museum no. E.340-1986
    © Richard Long

    This print was made for a famine charity appeal. It reproduces the artist's muddy footprints marking out a map of Africa. Although alluding to Long's own walks, it also suggests the journeys undertaken by poverty-stricken people walking long distances in search of food aid.

  • Anonymous, Christmas card for Kingfisher plc, 2005



    Anonymous
    Christmas card for Kingfisher plc
    About 2005
    Blind embossing and offset lithograph on card
    Published by Kingfisher plc
    Museum no. E.265-2006
    Given by Lady Ritblat

    Kingfisher plc is one of Europe's leading home improvement retail groups, with customers and suppliers all over the world. The global reach of the brand is wittily illustrated by a world map formed from bird 'footprints' in the snow. It also hints at the company's commitment to corporate responsibility, sustainability and social issues.

  • Michael Druks, 'Druksland - Physical and Social 15 January 1974, 11.30am'



    Michael Druks (born 1940)
    'Druksland - Physical and Social 15 January 1974, 11.30am'
    1974
    Offset lithograph on paper
    Museum no. E.3010-2007
    Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund
    © Michael Druks

    Israeli-born conceptual artist Michael Druks has lived and worked in Britain since the 1970s. His self-portrait/map is part of a body of work in which he explored personal and political identity using the idiom of mapping. He saw mapping as a universal vocabulary understood all over the world - 'an experiment to use international and visual language for individual purposes.'

  • John Dilnot, 'Map', 2004



    John Dilnot (born 1956)
    'Map'
    2004
    Inkjet print on paper and card
    Museum no. E.3177:1 to 3-2007
    © John Dilnot

    In 'Map' Dilnot targets the urban fixation with a fondly imagined rural past. In a debased form, this romantic idyll saturates mass-produced domestic ornament and packaging. Here, evocatively titled colours from paint charts are arranged as a map of Britain, loosely configured around the real places after which the colours are named.

  • Susan Stockwell, 'Tea Country', 2000



    Susan Stockwell (born 1962)
    'Tea Country'
    2000
    Tea bags, cut and stitched, pasted onto paper
    Museum no. E.716-2003
    © Susan Stockwell

    Stockwell has often used maps to explore the history of trade and economic power. Here, she has stitched together used tea bags to make a simple map. It is a witty allusion to the British obsession with tea-drinking, but also refers indirectly to the legacy of the British empire in India.