Driven by his desire for “aestheticisation”, this project seeks to create a new skin for Martin. During the process of tailoring this new skin, Il Sarto Immortale, the tattoo of the Mappa Mundi became a fascinating cloth in its own right.
In the tracks of the monks that inscribed man’s relationship with God onto the single sheet of vellum that became the Hereford Mappa Mundi, we are using 21st century technology to “tattoo” the people, towns, rivers, paths, animals, and events of the medieval world onto his skin. This connects him to a pre-reformation Christianity, which provides the foundation for his life today, and shapes his acceptance of his cerebral palsy and sexuality.
Embodied onto acrylic, allows the penetrating light to reveal the people, animals, towns, rivers, paths of the medieval world still veneered with traces of the body used during the fitting.
Jonathan Armour 