Few weeks back, I attended the opening reception to the exhibit BAADLANDS: AN ATLAS OF EXPERIMENTAL CARTOGRAPHY @ Tin Sheds Gallery, in Sydney, curated by Zanny Begg.
Dictionary.com says that ‘badlands’ signifies a barren area in which soft rock strata are eroded into varied, fantastic forms. In everyday language, baadlands are the outlawed places, where centralised, official rules don’t hold much value, but the locals can have it their own way, either good or bad. An impressive number or artists and groups (Clement Valla, Lorenz Aggermann, Eduard Freudmann, Can Gülcü, Maria del Carmen Lamadrid, Democracia, Todo por la praxis, Santiago Cirugeda, Diego Bonetto, The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Ammon Beyerle, Michelle Emma James, Iconoclasistas, and Yurt Empire) proposed 9 original, unconventional maps of secretive or unknown location that are overlooked in traditional cartography. They are maps of inequalities, showing off the daily challenges their inhabitants have to face, they are maps of crimes and illegalities, they are maps of rent-free housing, they are maps on unbuilt yet subways, ugly car parks, and hybrid suburbs, they are maps of weeds adventures in urban Sydney, they are maps of markets who didn’t figure on any other map, or simply beautiful Google Earth 3D snapshots.
Guess what? The exhibit will be on display till 7 September. See you there, right?