travelling_across_meridians

Travelling across Meridians

With Matt DesLauriers' Meridian project on Art Blocks

"Today is one of those excellent January partly cloudies in which light chooses an unexpected part of the landscape to trick out in gilt, and then shadow sweeps it away. You know you’re alive. You take huge steps trying to feel the planet's roundness arc between your feet."

Annie Dillard, “On Foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley,” in The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New (2016)

Travel is fundamentally about movement—traversing distance, crossing boundaries, and tuning oneself to the rhythms of the world.

Going through Matt DesLauriers' Meridian project evokes a similar sensation of movement. Launched as a collection of 1,000 generative artworks via the Art Blocks platform, each piece in the series—in the artist's own words—"locates a unique composition that lies along one of many possible longitudes." The experience of navigating the series therefore seems to have much in common with travel. There is the appreciation of encountering unexpected beauty; the revelation of stumbling upon undiscovered spaces; and ultimately, the celebration of an expanded curiosity towards a new frontier.

I created this gallery to serve as an accompaniment to my exploration of the Meridian project, to align this journey with my prevailing interest in travelling the world. Although I am navigating different terrains—one physical, another digital—both pursuits are unified by a common desire to maximise the space for serendipity to work its magic within my own life, and to bear witness to the magnificence of being part of this wonderful world.

▲ The tones and hues of Meridian #493 are reminiscent of the golden rays of sunset, bathing the contours of a mountain range. Looking at this piece, I am transported back to a delightful trek to Mount Roraima in Venezuela, which I embarked on in December 2015.

▲ The verdant green of Meridian #496 brings to mind the rice paddy fields in Punakha, Bhutan. Ample water from the snowmelt of the Himalayas and the summertime warmth give rise to the prospect of a bountiful harvest. The photo shown here was taken in August 2014.

▲ One of only eight Meridian pieces in the "Topographic" style, Meridian #857 seems to reflect an untamed frontier in a mountainous wilderness. As someone who grew up in tropical Singapore, the rugged mountains of Kyrgyzstan evoke a similar perception—wild, potentially dangerous, and certainly exhilarating. The photo shown here was taken on a trek up to Maiden's Rock from the town of Arslanbob in Kyrgyzstan in July 2015.

▲ The "Gilded" style in the Meridian project is characterised by interwoven layers of golden and black hues. In the case of Meridian #584, its composition seems to resemble the Maiden's Tower in Istanbul, Türkiye, at sunset. Bathed by a delightful orange with the distinctive Blue Mosque in the background, this view from across the Bosporus Strait at the end of a day sometime in December 2014 showcases Istanbul in all its resplendent glory.

▲ The swath of orange amidst the vastness of blue in Meridian #768 brings to mind the beautiful wind-swept dunes of the Sahara at nightfall. It has an uncanny resemblance to this photo show here, taken at Erg Chebbi in Morocco in March 2016.

◄ Meridian #376 in the "Prismatic" style contains vivid streaks running through its entire composition. It reminds me of the colourful lanterns at Wat Phan Tao in Chiangmai, Thailand, where my family and I soaked up this kaleidoscopic scene in December 2019.

► Meridian #405, with its "Variable" structure marked by layers with starkly different densities, reflects a mountain blanketed by clouds, not unlike this view of Machu Picchu, Peru, taken in June 2013.

▲ The trichrome composition of Meridian #921 evokes a cool, alpine landscape. It brings back memories of some lovely days in March 2015 spent on treks in Patagonia. The waterfall shown in this photo is located at the end of the short Chorrillo del Salto trail, located near the town of El Chaltén, Argentina.

▲ The thick white layer running through the centre of this monochromatic Meridian #209 calls to mind this photo of Hemu village in the Kanas Nature Reserve, located in Xinjiang Province, China. A full day of snowfall had turned the roofs of the houses in this village completely white—a pleasant surprise since I was there sometime in the middle of October 2018, before the start of winter proper.

▲ Thin black streaks in an expanse of icy blue—Meridian #939 evokes the raw power of glaciers engulfing and moving across barren rock. It pairs well with this photo of the Northwestern Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park, located in Alaska, USA, which was taken in May 2016.

▲ Meridian #624 is one of eight pieces with the elusive "Prime" style, which uses a uniform colour and structure to convey an ethereal appearance. Similarly, my memories of the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, located in the southwestern region of Bolivia, are of a dream-like place that is out of this world. This photo of a hot spring at dusk, taken in January 2014 while on a tour of the reserve, provides a hint of the sublime magic that pervades this place.

▲ Meridian #966, with its "Fjord" palette, brings to mind Pliva Lake, Bosnia, where there is a small area with some beautiful water mills that date from the Ottoman period. It was an incredibly tranquil experience just walking around these water mills and immersing myself amidst the soothing sound of flowing water. This photo was taken during my visit to Bosnia in August 2015.

▲ The thick slabs of calming green and blue in Meridian #593 embody the pristineness of untouched nature—clear waters, lush greenery and crisp mountain air. All of these can be found at Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan Province, China, where I visited with my family in May 2014. This photo was taken at the Five Flower Lake inside the national park.

▲ The turquoise background of Meridian #775 conveys the sensation of being submerged. Seen together with the flashes of orange within the piece, I was brought back to the few lovely afternoons spent swimming with cheeky sea lions at the Galápagos Islands. I stayed on San Cristóbal Island for three weeks in May/June 2013, volunteering with an Ecuadorian NGO.

▲ Meridian #248, with its “Dune” palette, is evocative of dusk and closure—the end of a long day. It is therefore fitting to be paired with this photo of the setting sun, taken while on a bus to the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, Iran. I visited the country in October 2014, and I left convinced of what Michael Axworthy had written in Revolutionary Iran, his excellent primer on Iran's post-revolution history—"Iran is less a country than a continent, more a civilization than a nation."

▲ The vivid tones and energetic composition of Meridian #820 played a large part in my decision to purchase the NFT. The same sense of vibrancy can be found at Jemaa el-Fnaa, the square at Marrakesh’s old city, where I had the opportunity to soak up its rich sights and smells in March 2016.

▲ The dark purple and salmon pink hues of Meridian #123 remind me of the lovely sunset view from the top of Mount Srđ, Croatia, which can be accessed via a cable car or on foot from the old city of Dubrovnik.

◄ Meridian #801 is what its owner (Dandelion) has called a “Transcendent Grail”, which embodies distinctive outputs that appear to transcend the intent of the artist. In this case, the Meridian algorithm was designed to produce stratified landforms, but instead created what seems like a clean night sky with stars overlooking a mountaintop. This piece brings me back to the night I spent camping at Maiden's Rock, near the town of Arslanbob in Kyrgyzstan, in July 2015. I had used an intervalometer so that my camera could keep taking photos of the night sky while I slept in my tent. Unfortunately, my battery ran out and I was not able to capture a complete star trail, or diurnal circle to be more precise.

► The “Charcoal” style, as exemplified by Meridian #266, creates the impression of mountain ranges blanketed by fog, in the style of a traditional ink wash painting. It reflects a similar scene I encountered when heading to the top of Montaña Machu Picchu, Peru, in June 2013.

▲ Meridian #614 transports me back to the dusty mountain roads in the Wakhan Valley between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, which my shared taxi had traversed in an epic fifteen-hour journey from Dushanbe to Khorog. Along the way, we passed villages eking out what seemed to be a precarious existence in these rugged and remote lands. The soft pinkish hues in Meridian #614 match the glimmer of sunset reflecting off the mountains in this photo.

▲ The array of warm, dusty hues in Meridian #147 seems to have much in common with the arid lands of eastern Türkiye in summer. This photo of the Church of Saint Gregory of Tigran Honents was taken in the medieval Armenian city of Ani in August 2014, which is now located in Türkiye. The river in the photo marks the border between Türkiye and Armenia, whose peoples share a close but complicated history.

▲ A field of yellow in an expanse of green—Meridian #15 reminds me of the sunflower fields I walked past and camped in, when embarking on the Between Two Seas (İki Deniz Arası) walking route in July 2016. The route runs approximately 60km from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and cuts through the western periphery of Istanbul, Türkiye. It was established by Istanbul-based photographer and artist Serkan Taycan, who not only produced a map of the route, but also got it showcased at the 2013 Istanbul Biennial, along with a series of photographs that he took at every kilometre of the route. Taycan was inspired to map the route in the face of Istanbul’s increasing urbanisation—in particular, the proposed Kanal Istanbul project that aims to create a new canal bypassing the Bosphorus Strait.

▲ Meridian #443, with its streaks of red amidst a body of green, reminds me of this “Ferrari” boat I stumbled upon while walking along Beloi Beach on Atauro Island, Timor-Leste. I had visited the island in June 2019 to do some scuba diving.

▲ Meridian #605, with its “Delta” palette, conveys the beauty of flowing water through a forest of green. It is a fitting complement to this photo of a small stream in the middle of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park, located in Colombia. I snapped this shot at the rest stop for the first night, while on the trek to Ciudad Perdida in March 2014.

▲ With its delicious-looking spread of green punctured by a number of streaks running across the frame, Meridian #546 looks just like the surroundings of the jungle lodge in the Amazon Rainforest that I stayed at when visiting Manaus, Brazil, in January 2016.

▲ The streams of blue cutting through the body of muted green, grey and white in Meridian #565 is emblematic of the look and feel of the Canadian Rockies. I visited the area with my family in June 2016, and took this photo at Mistaya Canyon in Banff National Park.

▲ The lone streak of orange in Meridian #306 is somehow reminiscent of this photo I took at Kaunas Castle, Lithuania, in December 2014. Sunset was approaching, and all the colours around me were fading into a restful daze before evening came.

▲ The jagged layers at the top of Meridian #183 are evocative of Monte Fitz Roy, one of the most distinctive landmarks in Patagonia. I took this photo of Fitz Roy, partially obscured by clouds, while on the trail to Laguna de Los Tres, near El Chaltén, Argentina, in March 2015.

▲ Meridian #268 has a sea of white at its base, bounded only by an endless sky and some grey mountains. I would like to say it resembles the environs of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, but nothing can quite replicate the experience of witnessing a salt flat stretching on for hours, with nothing but some faraway mountains stopping the white ground from occasionally meeting the sky.

▲ The soft, clayish hues that dominate the body of Meridian #648, thanks to the “Cave” palette, is reminiscent of the resplendent palace buildings of Alhambra, located in Granada, Spain. I spent a day exploring the nooks and crannies within Alhambra sometime in March 2016, privileged to be able to experience this legacy of southern Spain’s rich Islamic heritage.

▲ Meridian #688 appears to embody a sea capped by the sky at dusk, much like this photo of a sunset taken at Kupang, the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, in July 2019.

▲ Two isolated flashes of orange in an expanse of blue—Meridian #221 brings to mind Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, at sunset, which I visited in June 2015. An evening walk around the Narikala Fortress which overlooks the city will yield some beautiful panoramic photos. The tower in the top-left of the photo is the Tbilisi TV Broadcasting Tower.

▲ Meridian #59, with its warm and cool hues coalescing separately, looks like Chefchaouen, Morocco, at nightfall. The town is so blue that it is only with the darkness of night and the artificiality of electric lights that other colours can start to exert themselves. This photo was taken during an evening stroll to the Spanish Mosque overlooking the town, where I spent a few nights in March 2016.

▲ The “Volcano” palette of Meridian #353 gives it a fiery, foreboding appearance. It is fitting when paired with this photo I took in Hong Kong in July 2018—the rich orange and red hues reflect the city’s latent energy, and perhaps foretell the unfortunate chaos that would befall it the next year.

► Meridian #275 is simply a riot of colour, much like when one steps into the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, at the right time. Twice a night at the Supertree Grove, the Gardens by the Bay puts up a magnificent light and music show, which promises to dazzle and delight one’s senses. This photo of the Supertree Grove at the Gardens was taken in May 2017.