Poacher’s Atlas, 2017 - now
Series of paper pulp works
The works in the series Poacher’s Atlas are made from paper pulp. The ‘drawings’ are made with the paper itself instead of applying the drawing to it. In some of the works, drawings are engraved in the pulp, referring to different skin surfaces, both of animals and humans. These engravings create a relief that is reminiscent of skinned skin or dried earth. On the one hand, the works refer to compost and fungi, a reference to regeneration, a network, a common ground. On the other hand, there are references to maps of air pollution, polluted rivers, an albatross’ stomach full of plastic, disease.
In the earlier works in the series, I made the pulp from found clothing (second skin), older and newer drawings, and atlases (paper skin). Atlases are collections of topographical information and at the same time a cultural and historical snapshot. The contents of an atlas reveals much about how the maker views the world. I label the fictitious maker of my atlas as a ‘poacher’. He has been ‘pulping’ all the countries and regions, obscuring information and allowing the earth to dry up.
For the works Poacher’s Atlas XXII-XXV (Rotterdam), I collected paper on the streets in different neighbourhoods of Rotterdam. Instead of using the atlas as a material to tell something general about a place, I now used materials that are directly connected to a place. By using these site-specific materials, an abstract portrait of a part of the city emerges.