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The Glacier Map Series (Opposite Wall)
"Being that climate change is a global problem," Burko explains, "I decided to take on the whole world at once." She created the Glacier Map Series and Reef Map Series simultaneously in 2019. Each began with two rectangular panels, linked by a frieze across the top. "One painting just seemed to lead to another, and then I decided that each category needed a visual conclusion, a square. However, each still needed an exclamation point, so I added one, resulting in a 56-foot-long series of paintings." These two serial groups are displayed in their entirety for the first time in the American University Museum exhibition.
Traditionally maps measure space, but they can also express time. The Glacier Map and Reef Map Series show the present and future of glaciers and coral reefs. The Glacier Series evokes the darkening danger of contracting ice, as blue-black sea overtakes the glaciers. The Reef Series presents a brightening, expanding danger, as warming. sea water creates temporarily colorful, and then bleached, areas of coral. |