Gerald Davies

Lines of engagement: drawing walking tracking

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.