Mapping It Out

Maps divide, and put us in our place, literally. But they are also an integral part of our identity and can be a beautiful and peaceful study of lines, forms, textures and space.

- Meera Rajagopalan

‘Is Kashmir confirmed to be part of India?’ my colleague from the Philippines asked on chat, when we were trying to figure out the right map to use for a graphic. ‘People here say it’s not yet confirmed.’

I was incredulous, for how could the details of the Kashmir dispute not be on the fingertips of all 7.6 billion people (and counting) on the planet, and those future Mars settlers? Never mind that I don’t know where exactly the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are in relation to each other. They are all islandlike, right?

Perhaps, I told myself, my colleague had been influenced by his compatriot, Lordy Rodriguez, who reconfigures maps to create art featuring fictional areas that reflect personal experiences and popular culture. However, I have a feeling Rodriguez would have done more than behead the country.

Beheading, however, seems more like a military exercise than an artistic one. Perhaps maps are the final frontier, where the twain finally meet.

Do those who create these maps – the political and military establishment (I imagine them around a wooden table, overlooking a spread map, marking out territories, fed on Hollywood versions of war and geopolitics) – ever stop to admire the beauty of these maps and what they represent? Artists do.