Cut the line sees Caroline Gasteen translate provisional maquettes into a series of expansive oil paintings. Through movement and tonal contrast, the images transform each maquette into autonomous subjects rather than inanimate objects. Using readily available materials, the maquettes register the necessity to keep acting on a human scale under the constraints of daily life—childcare, cost of living, and the conditions for liveable work.

This looming sense of precarity is brought to life by the two-metre-high painting Gnawing at the cord (For Amy), posing a departure from Gasteen’s often small-scale output that is grounded in a sense of utility. Cut the line describes a practice shaped by constraint, where the impulse to keep going persists despite uncertainty, and where small gestures are set against forces that exceed them.

Expanding on these tensions, the exhibition reflects on the relationship between improvisation and perseverance, examining how creative acts emerge within the limitations of everyday circumstances. The enlarged scale of the paintings amplifies the presence of objects originally conceived as provisional forms, allowing them to occupy the space with a new sense of agency and significance. Through this shift in scale and material translation, Gasteen draws attention to the resilience embedded in ordinary actions, revealing how adaptation, persistence and resourcefulness can become central elements of artistic practice.