Mental Maps by Marina Font

Issue 100

Building on my previous series Dark Continents, I have continued to explore metaphorically the complexity of the human psyche and its inner threads in order to further investigate my relationship with the multiple intersecting factors that constitute the female identity, delving into its multiple aspects.

The central axis of these very intuitive and visceral works is the approach to the female body perceived mainly through three planes: the biological, the psychological and the social, and the juxtapositions and connections among these themes. In this series, I depart from a black and white photograph of a female body and make of these neutral photographs a canvas for recreating, through the physical labor of sewing, metaphors of the mind’s systematic representation of the world.

My hands intervene each work manually, and through this intimate, performatic ritual, the embodiment of the photograph becomes the common ground where the familiar and the foreign meet, as an individual attempt to blur the lines between the internal and external spaces of the body. The construction of these mental maps evokes diverse psychological states and emotions with meanings that are in constant flux, never fixed, just like our identities.

With this series, I aim to approach what lies beyond control and reason, exploring, through the act of drawing with thread, embroidery, fabric and appropriated crochet pieces onto the photographic surface, the intricate mysteries of the psyche. Through these works I intend to shed imaginary light on the female experience in order to build idealized and fantastical connections to the forces of the unconscious.

Marina Font lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida.
To view more of Marina's work, please visit her website.