Announcing a Newly Commissioned Essay for ‘Desire Lines’ by Leah Reynolds

Published date: 12 Jun 2026

aemi is delighted to announce a newly commissioned essay, written by Leah Reynolds, to accompany our 2026 touring film programme ‘Desire Lines.’

Leah Reynolds is a writer and bookseller based in Bristol, UK. 

Conceived as a critical and contextual companion to the touring programme screenings, this essay will offer audiences an opportunity to engage more deeply with the films themes, concerns, and many varied approaches. Through this new commission, the programme extends beyond exhibition to include a parallel space for further reflection and interpretation.  This commission adds a new layer to aemi’s touring programme; pairing moving image with critical writing in conversation together.

‘Desire lines’ is a term from landscape architecture used to describe the off-beaten paths humans inscribe on their environments, favouring shortcuts and alternative routes than what has been instructed by design. We hear this phrase in Chloe Brenan’s Verdigris, where the narrator describes the design principles of the Paris Metro, specifically an original, canopied entrance by Hector Guimard, where ornate and foliate lines in glass and iron curl and repeat above the descent to the underground. The narrator then brings our attention to another line, leading from a trampled fence at a station entrance and cutting a diagonal path straight through a patch of green. ‘Desire lines’, as a term in itself, strikes a generous, fanciful tone. It is a flexible phrase used as an analogy across disciplines but in practice are the paths of a collective intent on a shortcut journey. Whilst they tend not to appear as wanton lines that frolic and play like the curlicues of Guimard’s art nouveau, it is in the impulse to walk on the grass rather than the pavement that we trace instances of human intuition, trails of interiority that spiral in the mind and must be taken to softer ground. Read more from Leah Reynold’s essay HERE

With films by Chloe Brenan, Collectif Faire Part, Eóin Heaney, Olivia Normile and Basma al-Sharif, ‘Desire Lines’ will tour to Irish and international venues across 2026.