Art / art
Artist maps Beijing on foot
An artist well-known in Bristol for his hand-drawn map of the city has made a unique research trip, walking around the Chinese city of Beijing.
Fuller calls it “a walking exploration”, which was made along the 6th Ring Road for about 250 km over the course of seven days. It’s part of a bigger upcoming artistic project in collaboration with The Palm Tree Gallery in London.
No westerners or Chinese people have ever attempted something like this before, Fuller says.
“The project was hatched from a feeling of necessity,” he said. “To understand and determine the gigantic scale of this world mega city and its forever changing geography.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6a6tXy2_Gs&t=5s
Conceiving cartography and geography as an artistic channel, Fuller wants to capture the unique personality of places in his detailed pen and ink studies.
He was first inspired by Beijing when visiting a friend in 2014. “It blew my mind and I started to fall for the city, like a teenage crush.”
Fuller in Beijing – photograph by Tom Van Dilen
Fuller added: “The day I left I told a friend I had my flip flops and a bunch of bananas. That was close to the truth! My phone was my navigation tool.”
He says that it is important for his artwork to follow a narrative behind the scenes. “If I’m very honest, as someone who is so new to China, everything blew my senses, so having an itinerary seemed fairly pointless.”
The artist is planning now to hold exhibitions in China and the UK to display the results of his #WalkInProgress project.
For more information about Fuller’s projects, visit www.fullermaps.com or follow him on Instagram. His hand-drawn map of Bristol is currently on display at Bristol Museum.
Top image: Tom Van Dilen
Read more: An interview with Fuller
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