Maps and Memory in Alberto Bursztyn's Art
Jan. 17, 2017
As a teen in Argentina, Brooklyn College school psychology Professor Alberto Bursztyn '73 loved art, but not long after landing in New York in 1969 he attended Brooklyn College as a geology major. Today he has combined his talent as an artist with his expertise in geology to create the pieces in Cartographic Narratives, currently showing at the Brooklyn College Library until January 31.
A Black Rainbow. Mixed media, photo of Southern Appalachian Range, old window frame. “There’s something mysterious and fascinating about birds that are all black. They have inspired fables and folk tales all over the world,” says Bursztyn.
Crows flying over the Mississippi. Mixed media, collage and highlighting pen. Says Bursztyn, “The Mississippi series speaks to my fantasies about the south. It was quite the challenge.”
Summer Cotton. Mixed media, acrylic and ink on topographic map. Handwritten around the map’s perimeter, from bottom left: “The cotton was open and spilling into the fields. The very air smelled of it. The air was hot, vivid and breathless. A final fierce concentration of the doomed and dying summer.”
3 Crows Flying Over Brooklyn. Mixed media, cartographic and topographic maps. “The beauty of the collage is that it makes you think in a three-dimensional space,” says Bursztyn.
Lunar Earthside Chart with Crows. Mixed media, lunar topographic chart, colored paper, old window frame. “The window speaks to time and seeing through time,” the artist explains.
Lunar Poles with Crows. Mixed media, lunar chart and topographic maps. “Often, crows represented a transition figure between the living and the dead,” says Bursztyn, “or as representatives of gods, or their mediators, or the gods themselves.”
In my Grandmother’s Workshop. Mixed media, dressmaker mannequin, maps (dress), seismographic chart (belt), threads (necklace). “Made of strips of maps from the world over, the dress inflects the idea that it brings all places into one. It’s a way to honor memory, as paper maps themselves are becoming memory,” Bursztyn says.
After earning a B.S. in geology, Bursztyn went on to earn a master's degree in science education, a second master's in school psychology (both from Brooklyn College), and a third degree in school administration from New York University, before receiving a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia. A former assistant dean of the School of Education, he is today the chair of the School Psychology, Counseling and Leadership department.
It was only after 9/11 that Bursztyn’s interest in art-making became more pronounced, he says. When he began to study art at the college, the faculty was supportive. The experience connected him to the art world and to his own creative process.
When Bursztyn heard that the department of Earth & Environmental Sciences was discarding their printed maps, it sparked an idea: No longer useful as a tool, the printed map was now a cultural artifact. For his works, Bursztyn uses pieces of the discarded maps, old window frames, and superimposed cutouts of crows in migration, symbolizing change and transition.
"In Grandma's Workshop," a towering mannequin of almost totemic dimensions wears a dress made of cut-up maps that speak of distances, of dislocation and the dreams and expectations held when immigrating to a new home. His Jewish Ukrainian grandmother was part of a contingent of immigrants that populated the open ranges of Argentina's pampas in the early part of the 20th century and became Yiddish-speaking gauchos. His grandmother’s sewing workshop was the place where she made a living with her hands, piecing together wonderful garments from all kinds of fabric. One person commented in the exhibit’s visitor book that the mannequin reminded him of the Statue of Liberty.
"For me it's a way to honor memory, but my reading of my work is not necessarily the only one," Bursztyn says. "Because art is always an intersection of different meanings, everyone has the right to interpret my work as they please. And what visitors say resonates with me."
