Artist Turns Windsor’s Riverfront Trail Into a Giant Map

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If you have been along Windsor’s riverfront the past few days, you may have noticed a section that has been turned into a giant map…literally.

Vancouver based artist Ross C. Kelly created this conceptual art project involving marking down, with sidewalk chalk, the actual 1:1 scale lines of latitude and longitude that run across the trail, in an attempt to get passers-by to interpret their environment in a new way.

Reading the landscape as a giant map asks people to understand their surroundings as being part of a larger space, or as a collection of spaces, all networked by these thin black lines that traverse them. Kelly, who is currently one of the artists in residence at the University of Windsor is hoping that viewers will give their opinions and interpretations on special Facebook and Twitter pages he has set up.

He says his aim is to re-stage the map in different cities and different types of communities around the world to try to discuss how separate cultures understand the ideas of interrelationship and interconnectivity. His hopes are that Windsor’s particular situation, sharing a prominent international border with another large and very visible metropolitan centre should give rise to some unique insights and opinions.

The Map can be found on the Riverfront Trail, adjacent to Downtown Windsor at the junction with Ouellette Ave and should be legible for a couple of weeks, or until the rain washes it away!

The artist is available to answer any questions or discuss any thoughts or comments at http://www.facebook.com/121maps and http://www.twitter.com/121maps.