Anna Bella Geiger

Biography

Since the 1950s, Anna Bella Geiger has integrated maps and elements of natural history into much of her videos, collages, paintings, sculptures, and prints. In such works, she reconsiders notions of territory and identity, particularly in her native Brazil. Geiger’s 2018 installation for Rio de Janeiro’s Solar dos Abacaxis, for example, resembled a series of museum dioramas of pyramids, Babylonian gardens, and an Israeli mikvah (a ritual bath). Geiger has made distorted maps of the globe and various countries from embroidery, wax-filled filing cabinets, and copper plate engravings. Such work questions the geographical structures and systems that we take for granted.