Urban Atlas Helsinki: A Painting Research Project

This catalogue was produced to accompany the exhibition 'Urban Atlas Helsinki' by Tom Cardwell at University of Helsinki, 28 April - 31 May 2023. The exhibition presented a series of works responding to urban visual cultures in Helsinki, produced for the Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Arts at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2022-23).

The project used painting practice and academic research to investigate the decoration of electrical distribution cabinets on the streets of Helsinki. These sites are populated with posters, stickers and graffiti that reveal a diverse mixture of narratives and agendas. Formally, they relate to the rectangular picture plane of painting. Comparisons are made with the Mnemosyne Atlas created by Aby Warburg in the 1920s, revealing links to art historical analyses.

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