The Map is not the Territory

This painting is which is embedded with small layers of a Melways map is inspired by a phrase coined by Polish-American philosopher and engineer Alfred Korzybski: “The map is not the territory.” He used the phrase to express the idea that we often confuse our representations and models of reality with reality itself.A map is a useful tool for navigating and understanding the world, but it can only ever tell a small part of the story. It cannot convey the texture of the earth beneath our feet, the complexity of an ecosystem, the movement of water, the changing light, or our felt connection to place.The more deeply we connect with the living world and recognise the Earth not as something separate from us, but as something of which we are a part, the more likely we are to care for it rather than cause it harm.For me, the painting is an invitation to look beyond the map—to experience the Earth not simply as a place to be measured, mapped and managed, but as a living world to which we belong.