ABOUT
A City Held (1972)
Within the printed structure of the map, a series of significant dates are encoded into the sequence. These moments sit almost imperceptibly within the ordered field, revealing an intimate layer of memory beneath the city’s formal structure. Individual histories are therefore folded into the wider system; the personal held within the civic.
The work begins with a rule-based framework. Repetition, grids and measured marks establish a disciplined field across the surface. Yet the structure remains open to interruption. Once woven, water was introduced across the paper, allowing gravity and absorption to alter the material. The surface softened, folded and shifted, producing tensions and contours that could not be predetermined.
Through this gesture the work moves from system to event. The encoded map and embedded dates remain present, yet they are carried within a surface physically transformed by chance and participation. Structure and contingency operate together: the city holds memory, while the material records the moment of change.