GLASGOW.- Govan Project Space is presenting Taking a Line for a Walk Week. Seeing a return to visual art after a longstanding period of working in music and audio cut short due to hearing loss, Christopher Bryant’s first solo presentation returns to the basics of what it means to make a mark. Mimicking processes and production methods akin to that in his music production practice, the artist expands on the simple act of making the first note, or in this instance, drawing a line. A starting point. Guided by nothing more than an instinct to build on the initial mark and by incorporating both analogue and digital processes, the artist, acting simply as producer and mixer, allows these procedures to drive and direct the work to their final composition.

The exhibition’s title is taken from Paul Klees comment, ‘Drawing is just taking a line for a walk.’ First introduced to the notion by Paul Carter whilst studying in Edinburgh, the turn of phrase really stuck with him. The paintings and sculptures in Take a Line for Walk Week are entirely process driven, often bringing to mind topographical or map-like studies, acknowledging the relationship and history of what it means to draw with line and source from the landscape, or our immediate surroundings.

Each work is formed from a small number of simple lines and shapes consisting of no more than a few marks. The paintings expand on these hand drawn elements and begin to explore the relationship between them. Elaborating on the frequency and weight of line Bryant then implements a number of tasks or procedures, pushing the forms to engage and react with one another and ultimately allowing them to communicate.

Due to the repetition of process and transference between analogue and digital outputs, we see the introduction and rise of error, much in the same way as a file degrades upon repeated Xerox copy. The failing gesture of hand or the blundered attempt to replicate digital sources begin to return the works closer to their original state as simple line drawings, completing the loop and determining the final form of each piece. The sculptural works elaborate on this and bring it in to the physical, echoing architectural scale models and ghost like outlines of everyday objects.

The whole effect combines to allow the viewer to navigate the show much like they might cross a landscape, explore a map or return to a memory of a place once travelled.

Chris Bryant (b.1981) studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art and graduating in 2009. The artist has most recently shown with Generator Projects in Dundee (2011) and Yale School of Art in Connecticut, USA (2008)