Black Sea

Artist Louise Hopkins (Hitchin, England, born 1965)

Date2003

Mediumacrylic ink on world map

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

Dimensions80 × 126.5 × 0.25cm
Frame Size: 113.7 × 159.3 × 3cm

AcquisitionPresented in 2005 by the Contemporary Art Society.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG014365

Keywords

About MeLouise Hopkins lives and works in Glasgow. Her practice has involved re-working surfaces which already have a printed pattern or printed information. Working on the reverse side of furnishing fabric, she created a series of paintings, making her own marks in oil paint to recreate the original printed designs.

Here, she makes marks on a world map but by obliterating it almost completely, destroys its function as a source of information. Within the sea of markings, only the Black Sea, White Sea, Yellow Sea, Red Sea and Greenland remain visible. She picks out the names of the geographical features which refer to colours. Hopkins addresses the idea that maps represent authority and in this seemingly playful process of erasure and exposure she challenges this authority. She takes possession of the map, leaving just a hint of its original form around the edges.

More About Me

Collections Wall

This work is actually a map of the world covered almost entirely in black paint - apart from the names of geographical features which refer to colours, such as Greenland and the Red Sea.

Exhibitions

Shoreline