On the occasion of the opening of her first solo exhibition at Hollybush Gardens, Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D: Chapter 4, Cynthia Hawkins was in conversation with Zoé Whitley on 18 September 2025.

Hawkins has investigated the potential of abstract painting since the 1970s. Her practice explores diverse literary, philosophical, and scientific influences and embraces the improvisational, whilst simultaneously creating a systemised space for her continually evolving vocabulary. The exhibition featured a new body of large-scale paintings from her ongoing series Wander/Wonder: Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D (2023–), alongside a number of smaller works on paper. The paintings refer directly to a series of drawings the artist made for a sculpture titled A Walk in 4D (1978/79), based on the journey from her Upper West Side apartment to the 86th Street subway station in New York. She writes: ‘Lately I’ve been using my own history of work to make new work.’ Hawkins situated this walk in the fourth dimension: space-time, as she perceived it in that one moment, elevating the path at a 45-degree angle, speaking to one’s movement through time and the world.