StreetFinder – MKG127

StreetFinder is Sara Graham’s third solo exhibition at MKG127 and is comprised of 11 large-scale photographs of altered Rand McNally Streetfinder mapbooks, that were originally transformed 15 year ago by the artist. In each map all of the information has been removed except the expressways, highways and major roads. What remains is a complex, abstract latticework of road networks that are layered one on top of each other.
Graham has been primarily concerned with the issues and ideas of the contemporary city. One of her central engagements in her practice is in the mapping of systems and networks and how their interconnectivity affects everyday life. StreetFinder diagrams a space of possibilities, one that lies between interpretation and reality. By manipulating the map itself, Graham has intervened in the logic of the city, constructing an alternative geography as well as a providing a different perspective of the city. StreetFinder raises questions about the “literal” nature of the map. Do maps create or represent reality? And what is the reality that they purport to either create or represent? Is reality truth or is it perception? And, how much does perception affect what one knows to be the truth? Do maps lie or do they make the truth visible? The StreetFinder series provoke new ways of seeing a city and provide new insight into the urban landscape.

Now based in Port Moody, BC, Sara Graham holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her works have been exhibited widely across Canada with upcoming exhibitions at the Prairie Art Gallery, Grande Prairie and Art Souterrain/ Nuit Blanche, Montreal as well as a public art commission through the City of Richmond. Graham has recently exhibited at the Museum London, London, Ontario, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, the Kenderdine Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery and The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St John’s.