About Co-ordinates- Paintings

Maps carry an uneasy authority. They present themselves as neutral tools for understanding space, yet they are shaped by choices, what is included, what is erased, where borders are drawn, and whose perspective is centred. This tension between clarity and control is where my interest lies. Mapping is often seen as an act of orientation, but it can just as easily function as a system of power, organizing land, movement, and people into structures that appear fixed and unquestionable. Historically, maps have claimed territory, enforced authority, and constructed narratives of ownership. They persuade through their confidence, a line drawn can suggest inevitability, turning fluid landscapes into rigid abstraction.

These paintings draw on the language of maps, lines, grids, divisions, fragments, without committing to a functional geography. They sit between recognition and ambiguity, reflecting the instability beneath the apparent order of mapped space. The work is not concerned with accuracy or location, but with the psychological and political weight maps carry, their promise of understanding, and their capacity to obscure. Mapping becomes less a system of orientation and more a metaphor, speaking to power, uncertainty, and the human impulse to impose structure on what resists being fixed.

Within this framework, the paintings of Barcelona take on a more personal dimension. Made while I was living in the city, they emerge from a time of both fulfillment and dislocation. Though I was happy there, I existed somewhere between belonging and transience. The city’s grids, routes, and repetitions became a quiet presence in the work. These references are not intended to describe the city accurately or to guide navigation, they mark a process of orientation, an attempt to situate myself within an unfamiliar yet welcoming environment.

Here, mapping functions less as control and more as a record of experience, reflecting a focused engagement with place and perspective. The work holds traces of routine and presence, capturing the subtle rhythms of inhabiting a city while knowing it is not permanent. It reflects the tension between comfort and distance, familiarity and removal, showing the city as experienced from a particular, intimate viewpoint. In this way, my paintings navigate both the conceptual and the personal, engaging with the abstraction and authority inherent in maps while expressing the quiet imprint of lived experience within a specific place.

Linda Sgoluppi Art