Two years ago I travelled to Bermuda as Artist in Residence at the Princess Hamilton Hotel.

During my visit I was given behind-the-scenes tour of the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Amongst the treasures I was shown was one that stayed with me long after I returned home: Willem Blaeu’s magnificent seventeenth-century map of Bermuda.

Published in 1630, Mappa Aestivarum Insularum alias Barmudas is considered one of the finest early maps of the island. It records Bermuda at the beginning of its English settlement, dividing the land into the original tribes and later parishes, while surrounding it with the elaborate cartouches and maritime imagery for which the Dutch cartographer became famous.

The map captures Bermuda at a fascinating moment at the beginning of its colonial history.

Only about twenty years earlier, in 1609, the English ship Sea Venture was wrecked on Bermuda while sailing to Jamestown. Rather than disaster, the shipwreck led to England’s permanent settlement of the islands. Interestingly, that story is thought to have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written just a year or two later. I’ve been making maps for over twenty years and this commission immediately resonated with me. It continues themes I’ve explored throughout my practice—global trade, money as a conduit of power, history and geopolitics. Discovering Blaeu’s map felt so exciting: I could see a way  to continue that conversation.

Rather than reproduce Blaeu’s map I wanted to re map it. Four hundred years ago, Blaeu’s map captured Bermuda at the dawn of European exploration, when maps were instruments of navigation, trade and empire. Today Bermuda occupies a very different place on the world stage—as one of the world’s leading international financial centres. Reimagining the island using fragments of international banknotes felt like a natural way to explore that transformation. The geography remains unchanged, encompassing the islands history but now telling a contemporary story.

Colour became as important as geography. For reasons I can’t quite explain, when I think Bermuda I always think pink. Maybe it’s the pink sand beaches, tropical flowers or the particular warm light of the island. A predominance of pink banknotes all found their way into the palette, giving the finished work a very different atmosphere from many of my previous maps.

As always, the map began with a hand tracing of the original map, which I then redrew and painted in watercolour before gradually building the island from hundreds of individually cut fragments of international

Whilst I was making the map the Strait of Hormuz crisis unfolded, I found myself working with Iranian Rial banknotes to construct Neptune and the Tritons in Blaeu’s decorative cartouche. The colour was perfect for flesh tones, while the flowing Persian script began to resemble sailors’ tattoos. Their green hair is cut from Russian roubles—a reminder that when working with international currencies contemporary always find their way into the work.

The original commission has now found its home. It has become one of my most favourite maps I’ve made, not simply because of the commission itself, but because it allowed me to weave together history, cartography and the language of international currencies in a really beautiful way.

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Title

Mappa Aestivarum alias Barmudas

Medium

Collage of international banknotes and watercolour on paper

Date

2026

Original

Private Collection

Edition

Currently in development