WESTERN FRONT – The Map is Not the Territory

Description:

Robert McNealy’s solo exhibition The Map is Not the Territory was a mixed-media installation of sculptures and drawings that explored strategies of disorienting embodied experiences of perspective and place. Through strategies of dispersion and reversal, McNealy interrogated how drawing and cartographic representation models the world through the logic of perspective by imposing an ideal, coordinated space onto the visual field.

Seen in black and white, the white gallery walls are covered with newspapers and large photographs on which are drawn illustrations of flipped vehicles and other subjects. In the centre of the gallery stands a sculpture of a house’s foundations, a table and a chair, all flipped to their side. In the background, a person sitting in the foyer can be seen.

Seen in black and white, the white gallery wall is covered with maps and large photographs of bones and trees, on which are drawn animal wings, the paint expanding on the wall itself, as well. Another drawing of a hand in a chin mudra pose covers another set of maps and a photograph. In the centre of the gallery stands a sculpture of a house’s foundations, a table, a chair and a pyramid, all flipped to their sides.

Seen in black and white, a gallery wall is covered in pages torn from a novel, photographs of rocks and sediment, magazine cutouts, and newspaper clippings. On top are drawn illustrations of skulls, scissors, archaeological instruments, a jet, a flipped-over car, and a house. In front are sculptures imitating a house’s foundations, and an upturned table and chair.

Captions:

Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.
Robert McNealy: The Map is Not the Territory, installation view, Feb 7 – 28, 1986.

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Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.