Mapped Veil

Lindsay Krug, Sam Schuermann

UWM-School of Architecture & Urban Planning, 2023

Plywood, Fabric

3.5’ x 7’

Statement From The Artists:

"Mapped Veil" tackles questions of iconography, legibility, and nostalgia in Milwaukee by overlaying two simulacra of the Wisconsin natural world: a bear and a map.

As the Grand Avenue Mall was redeveloped into The Avenue, an unusual mascot from the Mall’s heyday emerged as a monument to its resurgence: Professor Stein. This pinstripe suit, monocle, and top-hat-donning bear sculpture floated above mall shoppers for decades and was finally rehomed to The Avenue last year. Similarly elevated in the public imagination is the City of Milwaukee map, which is nationally recognized for its egregiously gerrymandered political boundaries.

"Mapped Veil" superimposes the 2001 and 2021 State Assembly District maps onto patterned fabric and drapes this over an armature approximating the scale and form of Professor Stein. A map and bear congeal into a single cartographic figure, the complex identities of Milwaukee’s past, present, and future are presented for reflection and speculation.