Scott Elk
Desire Lines - 50, 2022
Oil on board
65cm x 65cm

Here I was starting to abstract my Absence Metastructure ring forms, and thinking about the composition as an arial topographic view in reference to my Desire Lines series. I was influenced by a trip to the National Gallery in Canberra and seeing the marine blues of a Brett Whiteley describing Sydney Harbour. This blue in my composition certainly pushes the surrounding area into being perceived as an ocean, which helps it read as a landscape. This and another painting started life as an observational charcoal sketch of bones which helped give the feel of an abstracted human form which is something I was looking for with this work. An important feature of this work was maintaining the gestural brushstroke to keep it feeling fresh. There are so many little elements of the two paintings I did at this time I think work so well, and they are paintings I keep coming back to informing my present painting practise.

DETAIL:

Desire Lines

The majority of work produced in 2022 falls into my Desire Lines series of paintings, drawings, screenprints, and ceramics. The series is about relationship to place, connection to people, and the sometimes intoxicating, head-fucking connection of physical interaction.

A desire line, is a term often referred to in urban or transportation planning, as a path created as a consequence of human traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. It is the way taken by choice, by desire, and by necessity when following the heart. It is movement with intention.

In a real world practical application, the desire lines have the possibility to connect people resulting in events along a time line. I see people as these spinning vortexes of energy, in a positive sense like galaxies spinning and reaching out, and in contrast, negatively sucking everything towards themselves like black holes spinning. When two of these things collide, wondrous and unexpected things can happen; colours swirl, planets could be flung out of orbit, or set in a new orbit, momentarily or until the end of time. My interpretation of these desire lines is constantly searching to insert the human element of connection into fragmented, and abstracted forms.