Shift: Kit Line

‘Nothing will come of Nothing’

(King Lear, Act 1)

With a mixture of rigour and experimentation, technicality and playfulness, Kit Line makes sculptures from a variety of reclaimed and salvaged materials including steel, timber, plywood, and disposable cutlery. Banister spindles and chair legs are transformed beyond recognition into new organic shapes, polished to a sheen so that they reflect the light with a result more akin to metal or resin than wood (see Catena 2024). This high shine is achieved by use of a blowtorch to scorch the original wooden surface, which is then painted with enamel paint, reworked and polished.

As the artist works, he arranges and rearranges the raw elements of his sculptures, so that the individual pieces grow and change and finally, through a process of thoughtful transformation, are reworked to produce an original creation. There is an interplay between chance and purpose as the inherent parts of these assemblages shift into place, slotting together like pieces of a jigsaw, with a final ‘click’ as the composition is deemed final. The three Domino works (2025) show how off cuts of raw or discarded materials are used to make ‘collages in wood’, by slotting together small coloured pieces of plywood, and dotting them with holes.

Many of Kit’s recent 2D works using scorched plywood and enamel paint are so deeply worked in relief that the inlaid panels look almost like printing plates in themselves. See especially Linkage and Coventry (2024). By playing with debossing and printing from these original pieces, the artist can create a second purpose for the work, giving it yet another chance of life. A ghost of a ghost, if you like.

It is this process of shape shifting and transmutation, along with the intricacy of the compositions, be it large scale metal pieces like Quivira (2018), or the subtle pastel colours rendered in Psalm (2024), that gives these works their unique texture and integrity.

© Alice Chasey 2025