Fantasy Landscapes

While flicking through a notebook from late last year I came across a dream I'd written down and forgotten about until now. In the dream I was at an art exhibition and the works that most excited me were three-dimensional fantasy landscapes constructed out of maps.

My current journey with maps is getting more fantastic... here's a photo of a prototype which I am continuing to develop. It's called Canada-in-a-Box and uses a simple 'meander' structure to turn a flat sheet of map into a 'book' that is can be folded into a tiny, tidy box, or as in the photo, springs out in an wild and untamed spiralling 3-D journey. It's a very dynamic work especially as I perfect my skill at cutting and folding for maximum contrast between containment and release. I have also got Taupo into a tiny box which it erupts from most dramatically, and am almost finished a commissioned work to put the Northwestern coast of Scotland into a box. It's the best yet and I'll try and get a photo before it goes off to its new home at the end of the week.

I've also been experimenting with using maps to make flexigons, which are sort of folding paper puzzles which conceal, reveal and juxtapose different surfaces on a deceptively flat sheet.