Naming Tokyo, 2003-04

"The idea is based on the fact that westerners often complain that Tokyo has no street names and that you can't find your way around without a guide who simply knows the logic of his own city. I always thought that was such a superb form of local resistance—no key! So I felt it would be interesting to start naming the streets of Tokyo with names from western culture and society, to help us around. I am sure the people of Tokyo will like it too!"

http://www.aleksandramir.info/projects/tokyo/tokyo.html

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The World From Above - Atlantic Ocean/Boston


The World From Above - Black Sea/Odesa


The World From Above - Gaza Strip/Netzarim/Israel


The World From Above - Central Reykjiavik


The World From Above - Mississippi


The World From Above, 2004

"I started working on this series of 48" x 48" black marker map drawings after hiking in Iceland in the summer of 2003. There are now 100 views of The World from Above—suburban street junctions, swamps, archipelagos, cities, countries and whole continents. Sometimes the content is inspired by a trip I have just made, sometimes by a location in a movie and other times just from an interesting graphical reference. I draw from existing mass produced maps so my freehand translations inevitably become naive renderings of modern cartographic technologies."

http://www.aleksandramir.info/projects/worldfromabove/worldfromabove.html
http://www.aleksandramir.info/projects/bigmaps/bigmaps.html

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rozhovor: http://www.myartspace.com/interviews/interviews/art-space-talk-aleksandra-mir.html