Bits of Pieces

What is a shape on a piece of paper? It is exactly that. Why do we buy into these shapes? Why do we label? Why do we enclose? We are boxing ourselves up, we have boxed others up. As I ponder on this mapping theory, I travel throughout my pieces and pick out the bits. Bits of pleasure, bits of wonder, bits of texture, bits of anything. And then I realize...

all these bits are boxed within boundaries by the wondrous tool we call crop.

 What we sometimes think of as a perfect crop, may actually be not.

A squared off part of the whole gives us but one point of interest covering an entire surface, stealing away the excitement of the traveling eye and the miniature, sought out details of beauty.

An enclosing line is not the answer.

The entire idea behind our conceived image of a map is enclosure,line and names. 'Put these people here.' 'Label these people as Canadians.' 'No trespassing.'  'We're building a fence.'  'Send them to Siberia.'  'Hello, I am a Wisconsinite.'  'Give the natives a reservation, this shape on this area that we own is reserved for them.'

I have an interest in the theory of land ownership and use behind Native Americans, particularly the Ho-Chunk.  A brief skim on their website already breaks the idea of the common map. ("An abstract view," 2008) states, "Ho Chunk occupied lands not only in Wisconsin, but in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois." 


OCCUPIED.

Not OWNED.

.

I'm seeking a breakthrough. A busting, a growth, or a broken line will feed my needs.

I'm ready to see the whole picture.  I'm ready to search for those dandy details. I don't want a piece of paper to tell me where they are.

Reference:

An abstract view of ho-chunk history prepared by the ho-chunk nation department of heritage preservation: division of cultural resources. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.ho-chunknation.com/