The latest exhibition to open at the National Gallery is entitled 81 Degrees West: Cartographic Explorations in Contemporary Caymanian Art, generously supported by Davenport Development Ltd. The exhibition explores the multiple connections between art and cartography (or the practice of making and interpreting maps), the history of which stretches from ancient times into the digital era of GPS and satellite technology. Touching upon Cayman’s maritime history and seafaring traditions, 81 Degrees West focuses on the ways in which both map making and navigation have shaped our Island community from initial discovery and first settlement through to the Cadastral survey of the 1970s and the rapid developments that have dramatically transformed the Caymanian landscape in recent years.

Combining historical maps of Cayman and the wider Caribbean dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries alongside artworks that respond to, or draw inspiration from, the visual and symbolic language of mapping, 81 Degrees West showcases original and facsimile copies of some of the earliest known chartings of the Cayman Islands, including the Cantino Planisphere of 1502, as well as objects borrowed from the Cayman Islands National Museum, the Cayman Islands National Archives, the British Library in London, and several private collectors.

As a discipline rooted in scientific inquiry and evolving technology, cartography has had wide-reaching social, political, and philosophical implications, which are explored in various ways by each of the nineteen featured artists. Beginning with the story of European exploration and conquest in the Caribbean, the exhibition is organised into four sections: ‘Points of Origin’, ‘Circumnavigations’, ‘To the Ends of the Earth’, and ‘New Horizons’. Several artists directly utilise the iconography of maps and their material traces in the fabrication of their work, notably Bendel Hydes, whose early works incorporate collaged fragments of nautical charts within the abstract surfaces of his paintings. Others adopt a looser and more expansive interpretation of the subject, among them Brandon Saunders, Simon Tatum and Kaitlyn Elphinstone, all of whom repurpose processes that are symbolically related to map-making, as the basis for creative exploration.

Says lead curator William Helfrecht: “Maps have been associated with exploration and conquest, the visualization of global power dynamics, the assertion of national territories and identities, as well as the more straightforward human need to find one’s way in unfamiliar circumstances. Despite the discipline’s distinctly empirical objectives, the artists in 81 Degrees West highlight cartography’s imaginative and symbolic potential, as well as its resonances within the wider context of our Islands’ maritime history and cultural heritage”.

The exhibition features 19 established and emerging artists including: Cameron Bridgeman, David Bridgeman, John Broad, Kerri-Anne Chisholm, Randy Chollette, Chris Christian, Al Ebanks, Davin Ebanks, Kaitlyn Elphinstone, Kathryn Elphinstone, Latoya Francis, Bendel Hydes, John Reno Jackson, Iain MacRae, Chris Mann, Linda McCann, Brandon Saunders, Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, and Simon Tatum. The curatorial team includes William Helfrecht, Dr Veerle Poupeye, Natalie Urquhart, and Daneila Granados. It has been made possible by support from Davenport Development Ltd., along with several artworks generously being loaned by the Cayman Islands Museum, The Cayman Islands National Archives, and several private collectors.  

81 Degrees West is now open to the public and admission to the Gallery and the exhibition is free. Opening times are Monday to Saturday 10:00am – 5:00pm. For more information about the exhibition and the related programme of free events, lectures, workshops and tours please email Maia Muttoo, Education Manager, at [email protected] or visit https://www.nationalgallery.org.ky/whats-on/ .