Anke Becker’s drawings are made with a custom stamp of the word UTOPIE. The repetitive and cumulative act of stamping as mark-making from light to dark creates an “action” ink drawing that elegantly explores the nuance of grayscale. With a poetic touch, the sheer repetition of the word allows for opening rather than foreclosing of meanings, while the stamping process also gives the drawings a sense of the bureaucratic tedium inherent in enacting any vision of progress. Becker’s work evokes Oscar Wilde’s observation that “a map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail.” Mariángeles Soto-Diaz
