Paired Issue Study- Savannah and Imani Deep Mapping

 Paired Issue Study

Imani Burke and Savannah Zupan 

Deep Mapping 

Deep mapping has never truly been defined but has been subcategorized in many ways. It follows a sense of place, narrative, history, and memory. Deep mapping can take many forms, far past what we think of as a regular map, it is a complex form of storytelling, “There is no strict definition of a deep map. But it has been called the “essential next step” following the spatial turn that reshaped the humanities by the turn of the century (Bodenhamer et al. 2015, 1). The aim behind this concept is ultimately to comprehend the many layers of memory, experience, and perceptions of a particular place over time through the wide variety of narratives that are anchored there.” 

Many artists navigate deep mapping as a form of art-making or have experienced this in their process. Performance-based art is a powerful tool for artists to convey memory physically and visually. Unlike static visual forms of art, performance-based work unfolds in real-time, emphasizing the process rather than the finished result. This form of storytelling goes hand in hand with the concept of deep mapping, as artists attempt to portray many layers of memory, place, and experience through an ephemeral performance.   

Cut Piece,Yoko Ono 1964

Cut Piece was an emotional performance work done by Yoko Ono. Ono is a female mixed-media artist working in music, performance, sculpture, and activism. Ono makes direct references to “deep mapping” by relating this performance piece to cultural history and personal narrative. This work was set to give herself and the audience a moment of intimacy while mimicking the aftermath of the victim's clothing of the bombing in Hiroshima. This performance was seen four times in its prime and still leaves an aftermath similar to the work's content.  “Art to Ono is no longer about the artist giving the audience the established, final product. It is instead about the audience influencing the art. There is also never a definitive ending, only one chosen by Ono, and the duration of the performance changes with the audience. It is a constant and fluid piece of work, one that continuously surprises the viewer.” 

My Love is an Anchor, Kate Gilmore, 2004

Another artist who makes work similar to Ono is Kate Gilmore. Gilmore uses deep mapping in her performance work by creating performances with direct links to memory and place. In Kate Gilmore’s, My Love is an Anchor 2004, we see a young woman desperately trying to free her leg from a bucket filled with plaster. She is wearing a black dress and stockings, and in her desperation, she attempts to hammer her leg free- but nothing works. This video plays in a loop, as a never-ending imprisonment.

 In Ono’s work, you have the audience interact directly with the work, but, with My Love is an Anchor, you see a shift in narrative to make sure the viewer is more visually focused. “In her simple and drastic, but always visually stimulating, psycho dramas, Kate Gilmore creates absurd performative situations in which she subjects herself to self-imposed distress and potential danger. In these works, she ostentatiously tests the limits of her own psychological capacities rather than of her physical strength. She triggers direct and intense reactions from the viewer in these almost auto-aggressive, sometimes comically exaggerated performances and generates empathy by means of an affect transfer mechanism. Desperation and dogged tenacity balance each other out in My Love is an Anchor, but the piece’s bittersweet title conveys a sense of helplessness, self-deception, and failure from the very outset.”

One night, Fumi Amano, 2016

Performance work allows the artist to recreate a memory and invite the viewers to share that with them. In 2016, multi-media artist Fumi Amano performed One Night where she recreated her bedroom in a gallery space and invited the audience to watch her performance through a window and door that was left cracked open. You see the artist caressing a jelly-shaped person, and then she starts biting, spitting out the jelly until the end where there’s nothing left of the person–just a destroyed and slimy pile of jelly. Similar to Ono and Gilmore’s performances, this piece involves the artist's physical presence tied to a specific memory that allows for a visceral embodied form of expression. It creates a unique bond between the artist and the viewer, that can now share that memory and feelings of what they are trying to convey.

Amano incorporates deep mapping into this piece by the recreation of her bedroom, which displays “the many layers of memory, experience and perceptions of a particular place over time through the wide variety of narratives that are anchored there.” Her performance is grotesque and takes place in a private space where we hold many intimate memories. 

Bury My Heart, Rebecca Belmore, 2000

Communicating and sharing an intimate experience and history is important to performance artists who use deep mapping in their practice. In 2000, Rebecca Belmore performed Bury My Heart, where she digs a hole in the ground with her hands, and buries a chair into the Earth. In 1890, hundreds of people, mainly women and children, of the Olga-Sioux tribe were massacred on this land, their bodies left exposed at Wounded Knee. This is a performance directly based on history, where she digs into the ground of Montana in the territory of the Great Souix nation. This performance piece incorporates deep mapping by calling to light a historical event tied to a specific geographic place. Similar to the artists mentioned above, Belmore uses her body and actions in a particular space to recall a memory and experience and invites the audience to feel those feelings with her.

Deep mapping is a meta concept that appears in many different forms of expression, not just performance-based work. It is important to consider deep mapping because it helps preserve cultural and historical heritage, as seen in Ono’s performance, Cut piece, and Belmore’s, Bury My Heart. Deep mapping offers a complex understanding of a place, going beyond its literal geographical features by displaying the memories and emotions tied to that place. It is a powerful tool to foster empathy and dialogue between groups of people who have nothing in common. 

Sources 

Deep Mapping – Deep-Mapping Sanctuaries. deepmappingsanctuaries.org/deep-mapping/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

DiRuggiero, Meg. “Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece.”” Bates.edu, 21 Sept. 2018, www.bates.edu/museum/2017/12/06/yoko-onos-cut-piece/.

Julia Stoschek Foundation» My Love Is an Anchor. jsfoundation.art/artworks/my-love-is-an-anchor/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

“One Night.” FUMI AMANO, www.fumiamano.com/one-night-. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

Bury My Heart – Rebecca Belmore. www.rebeccabelmore.com/bury-my-heart/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

Belmore, Rebecca. “Bury My Heart.” Memoryactivism, 17 Feb. 2021, www.countermemoryactivism.ca/post/bury-my-heart. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.