“Blurred Boundaries” imagines the world as a network of systems and connections, conduits and tethers rather than isolationist nations. it speaks to how we experience the world currently- where paper maps are made obsolete and GPS technology gives us the topography of a place but also an illusion that we have knowledge of it. Its so funny how we feel connected and fearful of certain places at the same time. We try to build walls and have a new interest in nationhood but when you step back and see an image of the earth taken from the moon, we are just so fragile and interdependent and interconnected in so many ways.This installation utilizes screen-printed and hand-cut maps and Hanji paper to create layers upon layers of complexity.

Playing with the polarities of micro and macro, I use screen-printed patterns sourced from electron microscope scans of Hanji (Korean paper) which then inform my cutting. Hanji has long fibers that make the paper strong yet thin. By using this as a layer, I make the maps pliable, giving the work a sense of movement and fluidity. The piece seeks to disturb and displace the very intent of a “map” to locate and identify. In this era of global movement, this work is an act of disregarding boundaries that divide us and asks the viewer to contemplate matter and also what constitutes our interconnected world.

Material: Sumi ink and screen prints on hanji and paper maps, handcut and suspended

Nirmal Raja is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Milwaukee. She approaches her practice as a process of sifting and communicating sensations and ideas with varied materials and processes. Conceptually driven and thematic, her work straddles the personal and the political and is a response to lived experiences that are distilled and strengthened by research in the studio and through reading. She examines notions of memory, identity, place and belonging. Performative collaborations with other artists and the larger community have recently become part of her practice. Occasionally, she curates exhibitions and organizes and facilitates situations that articulate moments of connection and empathy.