KL'Espérance

Lockdown 2020

Wall murals

Spring 2010 

The Imposing Grid is series of paintings inspired by of the geographic, topographic and architectural history of Brooklyn, New York. While researching her architectural design thesis site, Kristen observed a phenomenon through scaled graphic land maps. These maps dated back to the pre agrarian marshlands of New Amsterdam to the present day NYC subway map:

As man-made infrastructure permeated New York’s landscape its borders began to expand. Its natural landforms were distended and subdivided by an emerging grid. Meanwhile, fill spread into the Hudson River, as the river’s edge was transformed into a thriving industrial port. This phenomenon is evidenced graphically when maps are overlaid chronologically. The resulting collage provides an interesting opportunity to explore the change through solid and void. The graphics and visual information are abstracted through a process of elimination and inclusion, of layering transparencies, to create new compositions.