Book Cover Project
Julie Mehretu’s biography reads a bit like an atlas. She was born in Ethiopia, raised in Michigan, educated in Senegal and Rhode Island, and now lives in New York. It is no surprise, then, that her work incorporates the dynamic visual vocabulary of maps, urbanplanning grids, and architectural forms as it alternates between historical narratives and fictional landscapes. One of the artists featured in the Walker’s 2001 exhibition Painting at the Edge of the World, Mehretu creates beautifully layered paintings that combine abstract forms with the familiar, such as the Roman Coliseum and floor plans from international airports. This exhibition features nine newly commissioned, large-scale paintings and concludes her yearlong artist residency at the Walker. Mehretu combines a personal language of signs and symbols with architectural imagery to create her elaborate semi-abstractions. Simultaneously engaged with the formal concerns of color and line and the social concerns of power, history, globalism, and personal narrative, she is interested in “the multifaceted layers of place, space, and time that impact the formation of personal and communal identity.” The underlying structure of her work consists of socially charged public spaces—government buildings, museums, stadiums, schools, and airports—drawn in the form of maps and diagrams. She inscribes her own narrative into these decontextualized, highly controlled spaces through the layering of personal markings. Mehretu achieves an effect of compositional maelstrom, as elements advance and recede within the graphically ambiguous spaces. With paintings that blur the line between figuration and abstraction while constantly referencing the world around us, she creates perfect metaphors for the increasingly interconnected and complex character of the 21st century.
Mehretu’s work is very abstract and is all about overlaying different pieces together which works well as the lines connect to eachother and the viewers eye is easyily moved around the piece. The lines dont show a real meaning but they work well together as there is no real consistency.
Chine Colle This is a technique i used to to vary my ideas and experiment with my outcomes. I used tissue paper to overlap the original print and then put through the press. Its a effective method as the marks on bottom can still be seen and come through it a different colour and texture. From the lines i used them to represent routes and roads which all become congested in the middle like a city map. The tissue paper represent the hotspots in which the congestion is more and also it reminds me on a minimalist map with bright colours to represent areas. The etching technique really helped to bring the lines out rather than using pen. and the lines are rough and then is excess ink it allows the lines to become more expressive. This will allow the lines to have more of an scratched look into the book which i feel if really effective as allows the viewer to interpret a visual texture.
I looked at movement with ink to express free flowing lines. The experiment worked well because it allowed me to get an understanding of free flowing lines. The final outcome is very abstract which is an element that i like because like my other experiments the lines overlap and collide amongst eachother. The overall process was easy to do which would allow me in the future if i want to use this again, it gives me the option of making outcomes quickly, but yet effectively as the outcomes work well.
Here i’ve developed the process to the next level by overlapping colour and marks. Connecting back to my theme these linese are alot like ones that would be on a A-Z map highlighting the junctions which is a connection that i could use to link back to or if i want to create the same effect. The colours ive used have worked well together and also i feel this could be a effective book cover as its in the centre and ive made the connection to to a heart with all the vital connections leading around the body, which would be the lines leading the viewers eye around the book.
Ive experimenting with the title in different styles and methods allowing me option for the style i want my book to present. The title options i had were congestion, on route, direction, movement, overtime overlap, flood lines, formation and also forage of lines. I chose flood lines as its a metaphor for the lines colliding together flooding into eachother and also drowning the books in lines.
This is experiments of different colour schemes. These colours i feel are effecting and the contrast works well together. From the positioning off the lines it shows the two colours colliding together at a interlocking style. The lines create a very edged look and sharp view which may lead the viewer into prejuding the book which may work to my advantage and the technique portrays something different.