Currency & Cartography: Justine Smith at The Map House for London Design Festival
In participation with the London Design Festival, The Map House and Justine Smith present, ‘Currency and Cartography’.
The partnership of London’s oldest seller of antique maps with British artist Justine Smith has inspired a new series which will be unveiled during the exhibition. Chosen from the extensive collection held at The Map House, it will introduce an alternative form of currency; gold.
To honour this new work, Justine’s ‘Money Maps’, will be presented in a ten year anthology of her work. This will be the very first time the pieces have been exhibited together.
Justine Smith has always been fascinated with the power that money holds in both physical and ethereal forms. She started to work with bank notes in 1998 which soon developed into her first piece, ‘Money Map of the World, 2004/5’. She has since continued to work with international banknotes and created a portfolio of intricate, dynamic pieces.
‘Time is Money’, is a departure from the idea that the world is shown by continent only; there are no political boundaries at all. A section of bank note from every country of the world is cut into thin strips, amalgamated, and then divided into time zones. A sense of globalisation is generated in this map as it joins Asian bank notes with those of Africa or Europe, and visa versa. The strips have the effect of movement, like the price boards at a stock exchange.
In the following maps money is used as a self-reflective media. Justine cleverly positions each note to highlight its own political, social and commercial features. By using bank notes the value systems that surround our idea of money are brought to the forefront. They present a national identity and an insight into a countries politics, history, religion, economy, and culture.
In Justine’s art, exploration into the importance and function of civilisation through maps (and paper), wonderfully compliments the extraordinary selection of original antique maps at The Map House. The exhibition is set to stimulate, fascinate, and excite in a remarkable joining of the old and the new.
It will run from the 19th September – 10th October at: The Map House, 54 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London, SW3 1NY.
We hope to see you all there!
For further information on the exhibition please contact us: maps@themaphouse.com, or call on +44 (0)20 7589 4325. Alternatively follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date news, new stock and exhibition announcements.
