Caroline Faigan

The term 'Line of Beauty' comes from 18th-century artist William Hogarth's aesthetic treatise 'The Analysis of Beauty' (1753). Hogarth presented a theory on visual beauty; intrinsic to this is the serpentine S-shaped line that can be found within a shape, an outline, or a composition. Hogarth intended his aesthetic theory to function as a manual for appearance and behaviour and to promote good taste. It also provided formal advice for artists on how to apply the line as a pictorial device; he believed that line excited the viewer and could transform an object into one of interest and attraction. In this research project, Hogarth's notion provides a starting point for a formal investigation of line and materiality in a sculptural installation. Beauty, ritual, and transformation are explored through diverse expressions of line: the line of chance set in plaster, the line formed and fired in clay, the painted line, the whimsical line of a ribbon and the strict line of repetition.