Photographed image of Kathy Macleod’s “That’s What She Said” series

Photographer Unknown

Thailand Eye, Contemporary Thailand Art

This image is of Kathy MacLeod’s “That’s What She Said” series about the contemporary life in busy Bangkok. I found Kathy MacLeod in the book “Thailand Eye, Contemporary Thailand Art” in the WSA library. I was immediately drawn to the bold drawings, fine details and intriguing stories captured in the drawings. The statement colours and the denseness of the illustrations capture the chaos and vibrancy of Bangkok. She has realistically recreated the true chaotic sense of Bangkok through the smallest of details including each building’s name and the busy market stalls and side streets packed with hundreds of people. I was intrigued by the birds-eye view of the streets as it creates an interesting perspective whilst still capturing the madness of Bangkok. Both drawings are of the busiest tourist locations in Bangkok, Khao San Road and Chinatown, highlighting she wanted to focus on their vibrancy and energy, showing Bangkok in its truest, busiest light.

New York City Map by Ruben Marroquin

Embroidery and collage collaboration with Liz Squillace.

Taken from https://rubenmarroquin.squarespace.com

Photograph taken by Unknown

From the series of drawings by Kathy MacLeon, I then went on to try and find a textile piece of a map of Bangkok through a Google search. However, this was proven tricky. Eventually I found this embroidered and collaged piece by Ruben Marroquin. Even though it’s a map of New York City, the same theme of vibrancy and energy of the city applies. Ruben has used embroidery and collage to capture the boldness of the city and to tell its story. The use of collage shows the location of landmarks and the blocks of colour of the threads show the different districts in New York City. This textile piece has been stitched onto a tourist map of Manhattan. The scatty stitching on top of the plain tourist map, enhances the busy and manic sense of the city; much like use of the bold colours in Kathy MacLeon’s drawings.

photograph and article taken/written by Alan Russell

Found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-26887276

Map of Bristol created by Gareth Wood

After searching the V&A and the Tate website’s to find similar work styles to Kathy and Ruben’s work, I decided to search on a different archive. On the BBC website I searched for ‘map of cities’ which took me to Gareth Woods story of creating a map of Bristol. Similar to both Kathy and Ruben’s work, Gareth includes high amounts of details in his map to show his most memorable and important areas of the city. The article pointed out the maps are not a perfect copy of the city, but instead are a personal account including Gareth’s most important landmarks along with others.

Photographs and article taken/written by Alan Russell

Found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-26887276

Map of Bristol created by Gareth Wood

Bibliography: 

1. Thailand Eye, Contemporary Thailand Art
2. https://rubenmarroquin.squarespace.com
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-26887276