Luke M Walker - Off the Map
In 2012/13 Luke attempted to find wilderness in the city by walking the River Thames, which took him from one side of the city to the other. This began a series of walks, tracing rivers, circling the city and specific walks in different directions from 5 to 25 miles at a time. Under lock-down, he has been re-imagining these art walks.
Each walk started as an exploration, never overly planned, with an overall intention, maybe a point to another point, or a destination defined by a landmark, distance, time or direction. Although the places are not always wild in the natural sense, they do act as ‘the limits’ of Luke’s experiential landscape which in turn informs how he recollects the journeys. The leaves of the maps and the structures created represent the layers and connections made along the way.
All that remains is an impression of each walk, retained in memory, and the virtual and visual footprints they leave behind.
Luke M Walker
Luke’s practice explores the environment through walking and recording. His ‘Datascapes’ series involved collecting specific data on each walk, the length, the pace, the altitude or number of steps etc. and translating the data into a painting. These ‘potential landscapes’ become physical representations of the momentary act of walking itself. They are also paintings of time and distance and it is these additional spatial and temporal qualities that he is keen to express in his work. They act as a record of the activity of the artist in the landscape and in the studio. Luke is Co Founder of the Wilderness Art Collective.