London School of Economics, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London

Mark Wallinger | The World Turned Upside Down

26.03.2019

Located outside LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, The World Turned Upside Down is a large political globe, four metres in diameter, with nation states and borders outlined but with the simple and revolutionary twist of being inverted. Most of the landmasses now lie in the ‘bottom’ hemisphere with the countries and cities re-labelled for this new orientation.

What becomes clear at this scale, and on a globe rather than the flat, rectangular Mercator projection we are used to seeing, is the proper scale of Africa in comparison with the other continents, and the vastness of the oceans.

www.lse.ac.uk

Installation Views

  • Mark Wallinger, The World Turned Upside Down, exhibition view at LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London, 2019.
    Photo: Damian Griffiths

  • Mark Wallinger, The World Turned Upside Down, exhibition view at LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London, 2019.
    Photo: Damian Griffiths

  • Mark Wallinger, The World Turned Upside Down, exhibition view at LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London, 2019.
    Photo: Damian Griffiths

  • Mark Wallinger, The World Turned Upside Down, exhibition view at LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, London, 2019.
    Photo: Damian Griffiths