ART PAGE Bristol Blues

THE ARTS

SN A P SH OT S O F B R IS TO L’S CU LT U R A L L I FE

THE MAN WHO DREW SO MUCH

Back in June 2014, we met a young artist called Gareth Wood, aka Fuller – a cartographer extraordinaire, whose latest project was an enormous, vastly detailed pictorial map of Bristol. We liked it so much we put it on our cover. Gareth’s mission, we learned, was to explore the identity and culture of places through what he described as ‘maps of the mind’ – intricately hand-drawn artworks of the world we live in, based on his own personal wanderings. Since we last spoke, Gareth’s prints have been acquired by the British Library, the Museum of London and Bristol Museum, while his repertoire of cities has expanded to Beijing, which he circumnavigated by foot.

He has also changed his surname back to his original family name of Fuller. “It was confusing having two second names, so I opted for the one I felt closest to,” he says.

And now Gareth’s revisited his Bristol map – the original is currently on show at M Shed – as a farewell to the EU. “I created the Bristol Blues edition to celebrate the spirit of the city,” says Gareth. “Political opinions notwithstanding, we’ve left the European Union, and all we can do is look outward; whether it’s for new opportunities, or continuing as a welcoming place to work and settle.”

So why choose the Bristol map, as opposed to, say, London? “It felt natural to mark the moment with such a fiercely independent place,º says /areth. We¼ll take that.