Victoria Burge's Recycled Geographies (AR3)

     Victoria Burge creates prints and drawings that concentrate on the framework of 'line' in relation to mapping. She is greatly inspired by antique maps, diagrams, and chart. So much so that instead of using a blank sheet of paper as the surface she works on, she uses the antique blueprints that inspire her as the foundation of her art. By using patterns like rivers, railways, or repeating numbers and letters in United States cities and state maps from the late 1800's, she transforms a map of man-made boundaries on Earth's surface into a web of light that greatly resembles a map of astrological constellations in an expansive sky.

'Oregon'

     Maps are used to show the geographical aspects and differences between areas of the world but are also used to identify differences between people. Are you from this state or that state? This country or that country? Burge's reworked maps create a sense of connectedness, that there isn't really a separation between one place and another; just different pieces of a whole. She uses ink, acrylic, and pencil to rework many of her antique maps. A great example of this is her 'Oregon' print. The ink used over the map creates varying dark color tones while the acrylic white lines connecting at over a hundred points makes a brilliant geometric web. Burge also makes black and white map by using a method called photopolymer intaglio printmaking. To simply define it, it is when light-sensitive plastic is applied to it a hard surface with an engraved image to create a type of photograph. Her 'Montana Night' is one of her best photopolymer intaglio prints.

'Montana Night'

     Victoria Burge is living in Philadelphia, PA, where she is continuing to make art that denotes connection, but connotes the entanglement between a spiritual and a scientific view of space and boundaries.

     “These recycled landscapes represent an on going exploration between paper and print, typography and topography, history and imagination.” - Victoria Burge's artist statement for The Drawing Center's online portfolio.