Fetish Map of London

'Fetish Map of London', Chris Kenny's mixed-media construction, explores the personal associations prompted by maps. The work consists of an old map of London into which the artist has embedded an assortment of nails and pins. This literal pin-pointing of a place suggests how memories and feelings can be evoked simply by seeing a name on a map.

As the artist has written: 'A map provides a way of holding a place, making an object of a place, it is already a fetish of a type. The nails and pins point out places, single locations that will have different locations for different people'. In Chris Kenny's case, for instance, a pink pin markes the location of his West London studio.

Kenny’s use of nails is a reference to traditional West African sculptures called 'minkisi', which have nails driven into them to release their ancestral power.