Humble Matter
Name of Work: Relief Map
Cork / 144”w' x 72”d x 18"hAbout the Work:
Researchers have warned that the coronavirus pandemic could inflict long-lasting emotional trauma. Each person will process this anticipated trauma differently, though all of us will need a guide – a map to help us navigate social spaces within this new context. A “relief map” is a topographical map indicating hills and valleys by shading, rather than by contour lines alone. It's the inspiration for this piece, which creates a map for rethinking the physicality of social spaces and how we navigate them. The Relief Map is a series of simple incursions that interrupt public spaces to help community members determine and maintain comfortable and safe distances for interactions. As the largest-scale piece ever proposed by Humble Matter, its design maintains the studio’s ongoing focus on sustaining personal connections through everyday rituals.
About the Studio:
John Born is the artist-designer behind Humble Matter, which makes decorative and functional ceramic objects that seamlessly blend the ancient and the modern. These designs not only serve as functional pieces, but as talismans that ground us in the magic of everyday rituals in an increasingly digitized world.
John Born is the artist-designer behind Humble Matter, which makes decorative and functional ceramic objects that seamlessly blend the ancient and the modern. These designs not only serve as functional pieces, but as talismans that ground us in the magic of everyday rituals in an increasingly digitized world.