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More Flavor: Lecture The Art of Mapping the Heart

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First developed by famed French cartographer Oronce Finé, the cordiform is a global map approximating the shape of a human heart. Reflecting the way 16th-century mapmakers viewed the world, the cordiform projected reverence, optimism, and moral certitude. While modern viewers tend to see sappy romanticism in these elegant "cosmographic hearts," New Zealand/Australian artist and cordiform scholar Ruth Watson questions such a reading. She insists that current sentimentality clouds our perception of the interpretative symbolism of the Age of Discovery. Today, Watson discusses her work, which makes use of coarse salt, tongue images, and other unusual techniques to create the heart-shaped projections, and explains how it challenges our understanding of the world and our place within it.

– Suzanne Niemoth

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