I read Erin’s sketchbook as a series of tributes to a place,
or an aspect of a place. Prague keeps on being such an essential part of my
heart, such an incredible place to live, I feel like I’m in sync with the
rhythm and tune of this place since my first days here and it’s just getting
better, though I most likely don’t make the best out of all the opportunities
it brings. I’m fascinated by cities – organisms of concrete, iron and glass. I
keep on imagining empty cities and realize that we’re indeed the blood of a
city – the circulatory system of human movement – people and their lives and
how they shape their closest environments. People I find fascinating too –
strangers, neighbours, friends – carriers of stories known and unknown,
mysteries ordinary, unbelievable & unraveled. Walking streets, travelling
public transport, every moment I try to imagine stories of anonymous by passers,
what do they carry within, and how interconnected all is. I decided to pay my
tribute to Prague through paying tribute to its people. This series in a way is
an illustration of a music vid to a song Planet Prague by my friend Vladimir –
the song too is a tribute to the people who bring life to my city. I made
drawings of some of the vid characters on a tracing paper, overlaid them over
another tracing paper featuring various maps of Prague and overlaid both over a
sewing pattern from an old German magazine for women – this pattern provided
the basis of numerous interconnected lines – fates – destinies. Finding the
maps was a brilliant exercise, I realized how differently we navigate our
environments, depending on our purposes, aims and goals in a given space and
time. Some of the featured maps map intensity of traffic, level of sound
pollution, public transport maps – day and night and plenty more.
