Cities, or sections of them, are often created on modernist grids or other grand, idealistic schemes set down by architects, planners, and developers.
They’re pleasing to view from above, yet rarely do they seem so orderly, spatially or socially, to their actual inhabitants.No place is quite as structurally sound as it appears on a map or from lofty heights.This condition describes the exciting shift in perspective conveyed by Matthew Picton’s recent works, in which he augments the view from above with historical data and an astute aesthetic sensibility.
Picton etches the layers of his works onto thin plastic sheets, brand name Dura-Lar.He then combines these layers into a single entity, separating the strata with thousands of pins of varying length.The complete, surprisingly sturdy pictures are two-dimensional maps expanded into sculptural space.When he looks at maps, the artist says, the form seems to leap out, “demanding a sculpture to be made.”His projects can take up to two months to complete.Picton has mentioned Las
Vegas, Lagos, Jerusalem, and Mumbai as possible future subjects.They all exemplify to varying degrees the sprawl, population growth, and overall expansion that interest him.That so many of the finished works
bring to mind circulatory or nervous systems only attest to the living, breathing, evolving nature of cities.
