Scott Elk
Desire Lines - Kurinuki Cup 04, 2022.
Stoneware ceramic, gold lustre
10cm x 11cm x 10cm approx.

Kurinuki is a traditional Japanese form of hand-building with clay. This tradition involves shaping a solid block of clay and carving out a vessel. The technique allows for a lovely rough facetted effect, as well as making indentations in the surface to allow the glaze to pool. I was interested in using these small cups to really push the glaze experimentation and play with a variety of mark making techniques developing my Desire Lines visual language which I then used on subsequent works.

Each piece in this small series of five cups is like a unique painting which has the added benefit of being functional, which is a pleasure to spend time with holding, and drinking from.

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.