Desire Lines sculpture, a woven fabric arm-like form

Desire Lines

What does it mean to walk a pathway through a forest? What is the human experience of that journey and how do we perceive the complex ecosystem that we move through? These are the questions we set out to explore during an artistic residency at Spreepark Art Space in the winter of 2025.

Our answer is Desire Lines, a ‘cross-sensory’ sculpture. Tactile, musical and interactive, our work distills the sounds, colours, textures, and shapes we observed first-hand at Spreepark and Plänterwald Forest and compresses them around a large-scale sculptural form that people are encouraged to move around, under, and through.

created with the generous support of a commission from Spreepark Art Space

Visitor reaching up to touch the sculpture in the gallery
The sculpture installed in a gallery room, arching between two columns A hand-lettered fabric banner reading Desire Lines hanging against a curtain
Close-up of conductive wire and audio equipment used in the sculpture

Woven across the surface of our sculpture are strands of conductive wire which, when touched, trigger field recordings of animals and environmental sounds, and evolving musical textures.

These interactive audio components are played through small loudspeakers which are attached to the structure of our sculpture and hidden underneath fabric and materials which evoke the flora and fauna of Spreepark.

An old rollercoaster track at Spreepark, reclaimed by grass and plants

To walk a pathway through a forest is to become a thread in the fabric of life. When we walk these paths with intention, care, and awareness we can recognise the beauty in things often overlooked.

Desire Lines is the metaphor through which we have engaged with Spreepark and Plänterwald forest. They are the paths that form naturally through curiosity and need — but they are also the lines made by the flow of the river, the creep of vines, the migration of birds, and entwined wire of fences.

A large colourful woven tent-like sculpture standing in a sunlit room
Close-up of blue and white fabric folds on the sculpture Close-up of sand colored fabric folds on the sculpture Wide view of the sculpture arching through an ornate gallery room The sculpture arching past a window in a gallery room
Brick facade of the Spreepark Art Space building
Children and families gathered around a table at a drop-in workshop

Desire Lines drop-in workshop with children and families Spreepark Art Space 2026

Behind-the-scenes photos of the sculpture being made and installed