Atlas (after Anna) by Hanna Perrine Mode.
This site-specific piece 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.
