Lines Made by Walking

Lines Made by Walking is a looped series of projected photographic transparencies which has been incorporated into the permanent collection of the Arts Council England. The viewer sees the artist, dressed in a suit, walking backwards and forwards in a crowd of commuters. The figure of the artist appears and disappears amongst the others surrounding her, who appear similar to her. The title of this work makes a sly reference to Richard Long’s ‘A Line Made By Walking’ and there is a clear resonance with the work of the Situationist International in terms of the pedestrian navigation of space, of institutional control in tension with individual agency.

As a projected slide piece, the rhythm of the slides changing automatically within the projector (at a 1 second interval) adds a sense of inevitability and a mechanic rhythm to the work, plus a cyclical form which enhances the meaning of the piece.