Big Maps for a Small Planet, a solo exhibition by Ana Vizcarra (A.V.) Rankin at Philadelphia’s Cherry Street Pier, transformed the monumental scale of the 65,000-square-foot former shipping warehouse into an immersive exploration of cartography, perception, and humanity’s place in the universe. Featuring world maps, star maps, and alternative cartographies measuring up to 8 × 16 feet, the exhibition challenged conventional systems of orientation and representation, inviting viewers to reconsider how geography, history, and scientific knowledge shape our understanding of the world. Suspended from the Pier’s industrial trusses and displayed throughout its expansive Garden, the works engaged the architecture of the site while shifting between terrestrial and cosmic perspectives. An accompanying gallery exhibition of collaged sketches and mapping-related works revealed the intimate processes behind these monumental investigations, connecting the physical experience of scale with larger questions of knowledge, perspective, and our place within an interconnected universe.

With funding from: Creative Capital x Skoll

Photo Credit: Brian Hunt