Lost in Art Fields

This weekend will be the last weekend to see the stunning display of installation art in Lake City, South Carolina. My husband and I were there briefly this past Sunday, and although we only were able to take in a portion of the exhibition, I will post a few of my favorites from the show shortly.

For the first time, I applied to the regional art competition Art Fields, now taking place in Lake City, South Carolina. My accepted art work, A Map of the Medical Underworld, was rather overwhelmed by the large works and installations on location. It became very apparent that this was an exhibition for installation artists, artists working on a large scale, and artists using multiple works counting as

one. My drawing was a finely detailed work that took over three weeks to create. But in order to really fit in thematically it would have had to have been ten times as large and in multiple sections.

So a Map of the Medical Underworld was lost! Actually it was not literally lost, just difficult to find. It took us a while to locate the work, but by asking directions and following maps we found the building it was purported to be in - a side street at 128 N Acline Avenue. The building was called W.A. McClam Livery Stables. The entrance opened in to a spacious room where we saw a stunning sculpture of a wild boar. But no drawing. Then I noticed a side exit and took that. This opened into a long corridor of talking heads on videos. Coming back in to the main room again I asked a volunteer if I had missed something. She pointed me to an exit door at the back of the room. I took that and found my work hanging on a wall in a narrow corridor and facing the exit door. Rather ironic really, a drawing that features a maze that has no exit hung in a spot where it is difficult to find.

My drawing was based structurally on Sandro Botticelli's illustration of Dante's Inferno, but with a few rings of Hell missing. It occurs to me now that probably the best way to display such a detailed drawing would be to have it lying flat in a display case - like the way old book illustrations and maps are displayed. Something to think about for the future...or spend a year making it ten times larger.
I've posted the whole map here along with close up views of some of the parts. The central maze incorporates Chinese seal script characters that say wicked, error, and lost.
An important update!  The work was not lost on everyone, as it took the prize for the drawing category.  Nice to have some revenue to buy more paper!