Accession Code: wu0779 Title: A Familiar Place Date completed: 2000 Medium: Collage Material: Collage Height (mm): 1410 Width (mm): 1000 Depth (mm): n/a Inscription: n/a Location Name: Humanities Building Location Description: Psychology Location Floor: 1

Purchased by the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme on behalf of Mead Gallery, University of Warwick with funds from the Arts Council Lottery, 2001

Curtis is interested in the deconstruction of maps. In her mischievous and meticulous reinventions she relocates cities, counties and even countries producing an unsettling version of what should appear familiar. As an artist working in the UK, she also makes a statement about cultural zoning and the way attitudes to the regions influence status, media coverage and economic support. The shared hegemony of London and Glasgow results in a relative shortage of opportunities for making and viewing contemporary art elsewhere in the UK.

In the more international maps that Curtis has adapted, intriguing questions arise about history, colonization and power and we are led to recognize that our mental picture of the world is not always as comprehensive as we might believe.