FEBRUARY 7 – APRIL 12, 2020
THE GALLERY AT PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Rankin’s work formally explores scientific research topics, philosophical thought, and migrating movements. Using both micro and macro perspectives of the world and space, the artist creates maps that investigate reframing binary imaginations and theories of chaos. Incorporating a variety of methods for plotting and communicating spatial information, the exhibit includes Rankins’ constellation and world maps, global flight trackers, and studies of subatomic particles. Using images captured with powerful telescopes and other mediating technologies such as global positioning systems, Rankin creates art that explores the phenomenological sense of being in—and of—the universe.
Rankin was born in Maldonado, Uruguay, and pays homage to the great avant-garde artist of her birthplace, JoaquÍn Torres-García. Included in the exhibit is El Sur, part of her series Large World Maps which positions the Southern Hemisphere at the top of the picture plane, symbolic of defining South America in its own terms rather than in relation to North America. Rankin emphasizes the dualities found in the inverted maps and the reorienting of our realities through these visuals.
Photos courtesy of Kay Baier.
Alana J. Coates 