Beneath this painting, entitled Untitled (Routes of the famous flying Clipper ships), is a representation of a colored lithograph detailing the now defunct Pan-American Airlines service routes throughout the United...
Beneath this painting, entitled Untitled (Routes of the famous flying Clipper ships), is a representation of a colored lithograph detailing the now defunct Pan-American Airlines service routes throughout the United States, Caribbean, and Central and South America. In the lower left corner of the map, the makers of this document have included a vignette image of a sailing clipper ship, drawing an unsettling connection between routes of colonial conquest and modern air travel.
In her swirling, richly textured overpainting, Firelei Báez obscures this problematic map by rendering semi-abstracted weather phenomena, such as tsunamis, icebergs, and tropical storm systems. A meaningful suggestion of the power that nature ultimately has over the conquests of men.