Lordy Rodriguez’s works start with a geological source
and the human urge to locate/define oneself by charting
our environment in precise detail. Using the language of
cartography, he makes drawings that go beyond map-
making into abstracted, imaginary terrain.

A desire to remake the world motivates his drawings. For
several years he’s been working on a series that re-
draws the boundaries and locations of the 50 United
States and the cities within them (and adds 5 more
states). Other works paradoxically use the specific vo-
cabulary of topography to chart invented lands.

The Geological series is a new body of work that pushes
the iconography of mapmaking further into abstraction.
These works omit the text that is so crucial to carto-
graphy. Without text, the map loses its utility, and the
void is filled by the viewer’s own biases and exper-
iences.

In previous bodies of work, including the Abstracted
series and the America series, symbols and colors
typical of road maps—such as highways, urban sprawls,
and park versus city land — contributed to a certain
recognition and sense of familiarity. With the Geological
series, all that remains is the landscape — magnified,
fragmented, and devoid of context. Dislocation, a
constant theme through his work, operates here on an
even deeper level.