Simon Patterson is a world-renowned artist, most famous for his reworking of the London Underground map in 1992, The Great Bear. Now that I have settled on the idea of portraying my journey, and the 'typical' NHS Gender Identity Services journey in a tube map, of course Simon Patterson would have to be the first artist that I referenced, being most famous for his own interpretation of the world’s first tube map.
I had always been fascinated by Simon Patterson's work and the level of commitment that would have gone into coordinating all those historical figures to link perfectly and not intercept with any contradictions. However, creating my own tube maps gave me a whole new-found respect for the artist.
To this day I still don't understand how Mick Jagger connects to Indira Gandhi, but someone more knowledgeable on Mick Jagger's backstory or beliefs may recognize that connection straight off! I'm not going to slate Patterson for linking two things together that, in my head, don't necessarily go, I'll have an open mind to it. I mean in a way, Mick Jagger's lyrics and music could be to one person what Gandhi -
At this point I had to cut my sentence short, as I have now realised that I was thinking of Mahatma Gandhi... apparently Indira Gandhi was the second Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. I now think I'm even more confused than before on why Mick Jagger is listed in the same way as Anne of Cleaves.
However... my point still stands that even though I don't understand the reason, I just have to be open to the idea that they connect, and that's what I hope people take away when they look at my maps.
Much like Patterson, I chose the London Underground as a map to replicate because of it's accessibility to everyone, not just artists. In Patterson's words:
“the Underground Map is recognisable, although it is an abstraction that seems representative of place; people who are not interested in art might like it, because it is comfortable.”
Gender is a constantly evolving construct, in the same way maps evolve and change so does gender and so society needs to follow suit. I wanted to display the options available for people in-transition in an accessible way for those who are aware of existence beyond the binary and those who are not.
In the same way as a tourist is able to locate themselves on the London Underground tube map and identify themselves in relation to the tube system, I wanted a gender-questioning person to identify where they were up to in the NHS Care Pathway and what station options are up ahead for them when they are not getting answers from the gender services themselves.
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