Lines of engagement: drawing walking tracking

Abstract

This article explores a fresh approach to discussing the walked line in artworks. We look at literal symbolic and temporal functions of line as they operate in the connections formed between artist, audience and events in examples of participatory practice. We propose that a plural understanding of line can reveal agency in line that is otherwise overlooked. Our position is informed by theories of line from the field of fine art drawing to identify a particular type of line, a line of exchange, in which participants become active agents in forming the artwork. This less visible line of exchange has the capacity to ‘draw out’ information and make public personal experiences, events and histories that are otherwise unseen, unconnected or disregarded. This in turn reveals a particular aesthetic which offers a fresh approach to discourse around the line which goes for a walk.

Keywords:

• drawing
• walking
• participation
• exchange

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Casey is Lecturer in Sculpture and Installation at Lancaster University. She was awarded a PhD in drawing in 2012 and exhibits nationally and internationally. A core interest is drawing in dialogue with other research areas. Recent projects led to shows at Kensington Palace (2013), the Bowes Museum (2015). She writes on drawing in collaboration with Davies, recently co-authoring a paper on site-sensitive drawing for TRACEY.

Gerry Davies is Senior Lecturer in Drawing at Lancaster University. He studied drawing at the Royal College of Art; he was a Fulbright Scholar at Purdue University in the USA and Artist in Residence at Durham Cathedral. In 2010 his practice of drawing in caves lead to a nine-week project drawing in the Jenolan Cave system of the Blue Mountains, Australia, and a solo show at the Drawing Study Centre at the National Art School, Sydney.