Cut the Line sees Brisbane artist Caroline Gasteen transform provisional maquettes into a series of expansive oil paintings. Through movement, scale and tonal contrast, these works shift the maquettes from simple constructed objects into autonomous subjects, charged with presence and emotional weight.
Created using readily available materials, the original maquettes reflect the realities of making art within the constraints of everyday life, including childcare responsibilities, cost-of-living pressures, and the pursuit of sustainable creative work. These themes of persistence and adaptation underpin the exhibition, where small acts of making become responses to larger social and economic forces.
A key work in the exhibition, Gnawing at the Cord (For Amy), marks a significant departure from Gasteen’s typically modest scale, standing over two metres high and embodying a looming sense of precarity. Cut the Line presents a practice shaped by limitation yet driven by an enduring impulse to continue, revealing how creative gestures can persist in the face of uncertainty.
Image: Overkill (2025–26) is an oil on board painting by Caroline Gasteen, measuring 51 x 41 x 2 cm.
