Atlas (after Anna)
2022
Hannah Perrine Mode
Hand-painted and hand-etched glass laminated to printed aluminum panels
Atlas (after Anna) consists of multiple overlaid, abstract maps that reflect the school’s unique location amidst the Bay Area’s rich natural systems.
Blending place-based scientific and artistic inquiries, Atlas (after Anna) consists of thirty aluminum panels arranged to depict a geologic map of the East Bay, embedded with images of local botany, overlaid with painted blue glass and hand-etched topographic line-work. Each panel features an image of a unique native plant from the adjacent Living Lab school garden, together creating a botanical index. These photographic images were printed onsite by the artist, using the cyanotype technique pioneered by the 19th-century artist and botanist, Anna Atkins. The blue painted glass references the cyanometer, an 18th-century tool that utilizes squares in a blue gradient to measure the color of the sky.
Atlas (after Anna) highlights ways that human and natural systems are entangled. It offers a spiritual, scientific, and artistic take on map-making; one that draws upon the mission of the Living Lab and Center for Environmental Studies as a place for multi-disciplinary learning, contemplation, and kinship.
To view this public artwork in person, please contact the school secretary at 510-577-9100 to schedule a visit.
Artwork commissioned in accordance with Oakland Municipal Code 15.78: Public Art for Private Development.
