Map of Down Below c. 1941

Curator: Here we have Leonora Carrington's "Map of Down Below." Editor: It feels like a personal mythology, rendered with such delicate lines. What medium did she use? Curator: It's ink on paper. This work resonates with Carrington's engagement with Surrealism and the occult, specifically in her exploration of mental landscapes. Editor: The raw, almost childlike quality in the drawing style really emphasizes the internal nature of that landscape, the subconscious spilling onto the page. Look at how she uses dotted lines as pathways. Curator: Absolutely. The map, in that sense, charts the territory of her own experiences. It was made after her traumatic experience in a mental institution in Spain. Editor: Knowing that shifts the whole reading. The materiality, the simple ink, becomes almost a form of documentation, a self-excavation. Curator: Indeed, it's a powerful testament to the artist's resilience and creative power. Editor: It makes you think about the labor involved in mapping the mind.