Following A Line

The selected works for Following A Line dislocate the conventions of how information is gathered and presented by using standard didactic tools and methods, such as lectures, films, PowerPoint presentations, archival images and signage to convey subject matter that in some way challenges the instructive forms. The difficulty of representing knowledge, and the imperative need to demonstrate one’s understanding is common to all the works. Many of the artists in this exhibition work from an archive of images and texts, which they have compiled over years of research, but it isn’t essential to any of the artists to make this explicit or to lay out their research in an accessible form. There is an applied patina on most of the works that implies the passing of time, and the unearthing or preserving of history. The faux finishes are not necessarily used to mislead, but are meant to convey an instability and ambiguity that may be unsettling, leaving the viewer to look for something else, like the relation between images, or how objects and designs connect.