Hunting of the Snark
artist book
with text in german
offset print, edition of 50
layout and print by Anika Mohr and Muthesius Art University of Fine Arts and Design
2019
The Artist book Hunting of the Snark is accompanied by a series of paintings and refers to the pursuit of conventional cartography to represent the world. In Lewis Carroll’s Bellman’s speech, the latter criticizes the Mercator projection as useless if it comes to represent a place. In proposing an empty blank map, he links to the perception of a place beyond scientific measurements, and perhaps also to the feeling of ‘being at sea.’ If all maps are constructions, how do they build up different realities? The work shows a collection of thoughts, quotes, and reflections on cartographic strategies of abstractions while blurring them with the history of painting, both restructured on the surface of a blank map.
photos by Anika Mohr