Upcoming Exhibition
Topographies
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, born 1984), “Mnemonics of Shape and Reason,” 2021 (still)
Mapping can create order out of vast amounts of information, help us to extrapolate broader patterns, or reveal how unseen systems influence our perceptions.
Topography (drawn from the Ancient Greek words topos, meaning place, and graphia, meaning writing) is the creation of a visual map that describes the natural or human-made features of a place. Humans have long used the process of mapmaking to make sense of the world around us. Mapping can create order out of vast amounts of information, help us to extrapolate broader patterns, or reveal how unseen systems influence our perceptions.
The artists in this exhibition have coopted this practice to their own ends. Some seek to record the impact of humans on our surroundings, documenting the changes wrought upon the natural landscape by ongoing industrialization and suburban sprawl. Others use mapmaking as a starting point for abstract artistic experimentation, transforming cartographic information into meditations on shape and color. Still others consider how mapmaking reveals ways geography can be weaponized by institutions, unearthing abuses of power.
In this exhibition, mapping serves as a metaphor for the ways artists draw meaning from their surroundings: how they transform our understanding of both the physical world and the societal forces that shape the places we inhabit.
“Topographies” is curated by Associate Curator Beth Gollnick.
Support for this exhibition is provided by:
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, born 1984)
Mnemonics of Shape and Reason, 2021 (still)
HD video, stereo, color, 4.2 min
Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey Moving-Image and Time-Based Art Fund, 2025.1
© Sky Hopinka. Image appears courtesy of the Artist and The Green Gallery, Milwaukee
Andy Goldsworthy (British, born 1956)
Prairie Cairn/ For My Father/ Grinnell, Iowa, 2001-2002
Suite of 15 Cibachrome prints and 1 smaller framed title panel
Purchased with funds from the Coffin Fine Arts Trust; Nathan Emory Coffin Collection of the Des Moines Art Center, 2002.15.a-.p
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders
