Artist Statement: Line Project
In his essay, “Walking in the City”, Michel de Certeau says “it is true that the operations of walking on can be traced on city maps in such a way as to transcribe their paths[…]but these thick or thin curves only refer, like words, to the absence of what has passed by.” (de Certeau, 97) I think we rarely stop to think about what a map is. The routes we take to reach our destinations are taken for granted—we do not question why our streets have been lined up the way they are. From more arbitrary layouts of cities to those that are meticulously planned, the streets can be seen as dictating our directions. But, as de Certeau mentions, maps are only half of the equation—we may use the streets to reach where we are going but we forge our own paths through those streets.
I applied this philosophy throughout my series of line drawings, as I wanted to see the ways I moved around the city both physically and figuratively. The activities I recorded were physical actions as well as the movements of my thoughts. Within those activities, I decided to document smaller actions that I would otherwise thoughtlessly perform as I tried to be more aware of what I don’t often pay attention to. The five drawings in the series were created in the span of one weekend and the activities recorded were randomly chosen. Ultimately, I wanted to see what paths I forged for myself throughout the weekend.