About the work

Taking the paper's size as its first reference, intl. waters (4) is part of an ongoing series of drawings and sculptures that relate formal conventions of standardisation to the symbolism of ‘internationalism’ and ‘geopolitical unity’. Bodies of water that make up the flags’ symbols appear to drain down their poles, their incrementally smaller (or larger) measures relating to the decreasing (or increasing) size of the flags, imitating international paper size diagrams. 

Date and country of birth

1990, GB

About the artist

Born London 1990, Josephine Baker lives and works in London. Graduated from Central Saint Martins, London (2012) and Royal Academy Schools, London (2017).

Using materials synonymous with urban topographies alongside diagrammatic chalk drawings, Baker creates assemblages and environments which clutch at the incoherence of the world they are inextricably a part of. The origins of physical matter, which has been industrially processed and altered almost beyond recognition, are reimagined as metaphors that challenge the ‘capitalocentric’ vision of the world today. In Baker’s sculptures, depictions of landscape and natural phenomena confront their own co-option into narratives of sovereignty and nationhood. Her work attempts to tell different stories of labour and survival, of events unearthed from the fractured terrains which surround us.

Atkin was a 12-month resident award holder for the Sainsbury Scholarship in Painting and Sculpture, British School at Rome (2017–18); and was shortlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (2019).