Map-ify
-fy. a verbal suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, with the meanings “to make, cause to be, render”; “to become, be made” Compare -ify. [Middle English < Old French -fier < Latin -ficāre, frequentative derivative of facere to make, do1]
The prints currently on display are part of Bailey’s Map-ify series. The subject matter for these pieces are place-based in a personal sense, and often represent where Bailey is living and working at the time. Many of these works embody a horizontal segmented format which represent elements of time, space, and place. Bailey has a fascination with maps: why they are made, how they are made, and what they represent.
The work in Map-ify examines the landscape and our relation to it within the context of a map and mapping as both objects and as acts. Bailey’s work explores the systems and conventions of depicting, charting, categorizing and interpreting the environment as well as individual experience. Map-ify represents personal data through the lens of the artist. Some of the maps and grids are more obvious references to a specific place; Seen in the pieces like Crinoid, which illustrate easily recognizable grid systems commonly found on local maps. Bailey likes to use the grid as an organizational system and references this network that is integral to us geographically and biologically. The grid format in general is familiar in many ways; it is how humans organize our countries and cities internationally. The system is also inherent considering the human brain has neurons that function through grid cells. Within this body of work, Bailey intentionally proves that maps and grids are an easy system that we commonly use to understand our world and surroundings. He uses diagrams and a personal approach to mapmaking that allow us insight to how he perceives and moves from place to place. In his words, “Maps construct the world they don’t reproduce it. They allow us to show the landscape without depicting it, like graphic notations of remembered experience." |