Demarcate: Territorial Shift in Personal and Societal Mapping

Demarcate: Territorial shift in personal and societal mapping brings together 14 artists whose work reflects the awareness of geographical territories and boundaries.

The artists in Demarcate are inspired by cartographic imagery as a formal starting point. From there, each artist takes a different conceptual route, examining themes such as urbanization, the natural environment, the utopia of a unified world where borders are eradicated, and identity as it relates to emotional, social, and political needs to connect with a place.

Michael Arcega, Sandow Birk (in collaboration with Elyse Pignolet), and Lordy Rodriguez create social and political maps that reveal the diverse and multiple interpretations of a perceived world.

Tiffany Chung and Matthew Picton examine the aftermath of history, exploring the recovery and growth of cities and countries ravaged by war or heavily damaged by natural disasters.

Linda Gass considers changes to the natural environment, whereas Kim Abeles, Rob Carter, and Fran Siegel look at manmade topographic changes and their effects on an ever-changing urban landscape.

Val Britton, Nikki Rosato, and Dimitra Skandali reflect upon personal associations to places, while Alice Raymond and Kim Rugg ruminate what the world would be like if borders were eradicated.

Individually, the works emphasize the human need to draw geographic lines and to locate oneself in the world. Collectively, they highlight how maps, beyond their pragmatic aspect, tell stories of relationships between a region and an individual or groups of individuals. Serving as visual narratives, the works in Demarcate offer a wider contemplation on how the marking of territory might connect to contemporary issues surrounding gentrification, globalization, nationalism, and war.

Featured artists include:

Kim Abeles, Michael Arcega, Sandow Birk, Val Britton, Rob Carter, Tiffany Chung, Linda Gass, Matthew Picton, Alice Raymond, Lordy Rodriguez, Nikki Rosato, Kim Rugg, Fran Siegel, and Dimitra Skandali

Interactive Map

Demarcate: Territorial shift in personal and societal mapping features artists that use physical maps and map imagery in their work. The exhibition is presented as a tool to encourage contemplation of questions such as: How does geography define us? What do we consider our territory? Where are we really “from” – the place we were born, raised, or currently living? And what physical borders have we traversed?

Visitors are invited to reflect on these questions by charting on the interactive map where they were born and where they live now.

Demarcate is curated by Bay Area-based curators Donna Napper and Emily Fayet.