Stephen Walter's Map of Liverpool, 2008-09.

Original Framed Drawing, Graphite on Paper, 98 x 92cm
& Fine Art Print (Limited Edition of 25), Archival Ink-jet Print on Fine Art Paper, 122.7 x 114.6cm.
& Poster, Lithograph, 100.8x93.6cm.

(Original Drawing - Currently on display at the Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK) 
 (Fine Art Print - Recently purchased by The British Library Collection, UK)

Details:

Available at:

(solo show)

TAG Presents

The series consists of 34 Archival Inkjet Prints. The Island (London as a whole - above) and its 33 separate boroughs.

All Prints from this project are sold by Tag Fine Arts:

www.tagfinearts.com

Through landscape and mark making, I previously tended to a process that continually burgeoned a set of abstract symbols. I was to turn the process on its head in 2001 by taking an array of signs and symbols from the world as a starting point to build new images

My work began to see its objects slowly taken over by their symbolic representations and the influences of a commercialised world; the idea of landscape and the environment as a shared space could no longer be ignored. In a Post Pop time of mass, industry, culture, and modularisation, my own obsessive tendencies merged with a continuing study into the traditions of Romanticism.

My drawings evolved with a growing lexicon of public and sub-cultural signs and symbols, leading me to look at maps and their keys. I began to invent my own, creating fictitious lands as well real places in my life. The vastness of information on these drawings was to enrich my growing fascination in the intricacies and the contradictions of our world.

After producing a map of the UK and Ireland I came to the decision that I would make one of London. With an ingrown passion for the city as a native Londoner, I began this undertaking in 2006, it was to span over two years.

London is one of the great living palimpsests of our time. Its layers of history and its constant energy to re-invent itself fuels this vast grey magnet. I was spurd on by the great Map Makers of London's past - John Roque, Greenwood and Phyllis Pearsall (the originator of the A-Z). Informed by my own insights and knowledge, I combined further research on the Internet and through writers such as Peter Ackroyd and Ian Sinclair.

The resulting map, a spoof of the historical ones of old, would challenge the first impressions of its viewer; touching on the Capital’s vastness, its secrets and its undercurrents. With this process in mind, I began to edit the information, keeping what I felt were historically important, interesting, relevant and amusing. These fantastical additions and epithets are purposefully innocent and acidic, trivial and serious. The Map is as much about the personality of its viewer than it is about of my own. In other words it acts as a mirror.

Britain is a collection of islands and it undoubtedly forms part of our identity. This provincialism; the centre of many industries and in particular the London Centric Art world and its rise again to a world city status add to its identity as an icon, separated from the rest of the country. I wanted to perceive London as another one of these ‘islands’, and so when mapping the coastline around its Borough edges I was happy to discover Carshalton Beaches coinciding with this border.

It is the facts and perceptions of this study placed within reality that gives this piece such meaning to me. Apart from its coastline, 'The Island' is geographically accurate and to scale, highlighting many of London’s main roads, railways, built up areas and its green spaces. It notes the city's Victorian legacy, snippets of trivia, local knowledge, stereotypes, its place name histories and personal facts and opinions.

Discoveries such as the 1st Earl of Salisbury having honeymooned in 1589, in what is now a dodgy part of Edmonton caused much amusement, whilst also being of incredible interest in the finding out of how places have changed. Some facts from Wikipedia are blatantly untrue. However, the inclusion of some serve as a reminder that reputations and hype can often precede facts and figures that in themselves are selective in their very nature. They can often hold more poignancy in 'the everyday' than official knowledge and statistics. For this reason, the map constantly bounces between elements of folk and conservative cultures.

Other epithets include: where Winston Churchill went to school and that Screaming Lord Sutch and Byron were both Harrow boys. The Gymnasium where Arnold Schwarzenegger trained, where the speed of sound was first recorded, the place where Oliver Twist was taught to thieve and where Hendrix died. It notes the sights of old Palaces; Newgate Prison from where the convicted were marched off to be hung at the Tyburn Tree (now Speakers Corner) and Pimlico Prison where prisoners were shipped off to Australia, just down the road from Whitehall previously known 'Tothill' and 'the thorny Island' by its former Druid occupiers. It gives local jargons, notes the Magna Carta Island at Runneymede and the main encampments of the peasants revolts.

These aspects have culminated into a study of 'Our History', a celebration of place and an extreme form of drawing where the original requires the use of a magnifying glass in order to read it.

The exhibition:

The Island: The London Series, (with TAG Fine Arts) held at the Crypt at St Pancras Church, London consisted of 34-framed prints - One large work 'The Island' (London as a whole) and it's 33 boroughs. All the works were made from the one original drawing and its scan. These were all placed in relation to their geographical locations within the crypt, Southwest in the space was Richmond, Northeast - Havering etc.

The original drawing:

'The Island' Graphite on Paper 101x153cm

After producing a map of the UK and Ireland I came to the decision that I would make one of London. With an ingrown passion for the city as a native Londoner, I began this undertaking in 2006, it was to span over two years.

It was drawn to the limits of illegibility and required the use of a magnifying glass to produce and to read it (The detail was slightly enlarged in the prints).

Using a projection from a map of the city I began with a basic trace of the outlines, main roads and railways. The rest was done totally free hand through the use of other existing maps. Once the basic geographical and historical information was laid down through a couple of Top-left to Bottom-right processes, I was able to float from one area of the map to another in order to fill in the detail, as and when it came to me. A year and a half later after much research and application, the drawing was complete. It took another six months to formulate the work into an exhibition of 34 prints, each one dissected from the original scan.

The forward of the catalogue written by Alli Beddoes can be viewed here.

Alles Nahe Werde Fern - Lokaal01

Stephen Walter
Elout de Kok
Frank Havermans
Diederik Klomberg

Curated by Frederik Vergaert and Lokaal01 - Breda, Holland. February 2007

This exhibition consisted of works by four artists exploring the idea of a ‘mathematical Landscapes’, geometry, structure and scale. I chose to display my framed drawings alongside the installations of Diederik Klomberg and Frank Havermans both on separate floors. Diederik Klomberg created an installation in the downstairs gallery. Using the careful arrangement of see-through mirrors, a range of materials, furniture and different shades of paint, the gallery appeared to be split into four sections. Elements that were half missing within these sections would appear complete through the mirrors.The arrangement of my drawings on the surrounding wall space would accentuate the illusion. Upstairs, Frank Havermans’ installation consisted of a number scupltures informed by old Breda city maps. The weapon-like sculptures appeared like space ships suspended in air.

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 1

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 2

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 3

In situation with Klomberg installation

Kloomberg installation

Upstairs with Havermans

Exhibition manifesto in Dutch at: www.lokaal01

Stephen Walter
Caroline List
Simon Keenleyside
Peter Lamb
Gordon Cheung
Hiraki Sawa
Gabriela Schutz
Robin Mason
Daniel Gustav Cramer
Miranda Lopatkin

I decided to create an exhibition of fellow artists whose work explored contemporary notions of Romanticism in the genre of Landscape. It was held at Standpoint Gallery, London in 2006. The poster included a special text written by curator Alli Beddoes.

In a time where our relationship with the Natural Land is ever decreasing, references to Romanticism must change in accordance with present codes, practices and influences found in heavily urbanised environments.

This exhibition shows work by ten artists that to varying extents deal with ideas of contemporary Romanticism through presenting visions of the future and reflecting upon a nostalgic and natural past. The difficulty with representing classically beautiful landscapes, memory and the yearning for ‘Homelands’ at present clash with the disenfranchisement of a lost wilderness into domesticated, sub-urban, plastic and supermarket-ridden environments. The limitations of a physical Romanticism must find new routes in the face of a landscape ever increasingly shaped by convenience.

Stephen Walter creates landscapes where the trees are slowly taken over by their symbolic representations leaving us with forests of geographical map symbols and places where every inch is mapped and quantified for human purpose. The ‘awe’, so revered by Walter is presented by the sheer volume of symbols, paired down and separated from their real state. He tackles the outlook of a deeply troubling long-term future using mundane elements of contemporary municipal culture that hark back to a sublime space.