Ed Fairburn

Ed Fairburn is an English artist whose ability to combine the geography of our facial features with the geography of the earth leads to a startling and compelling synthesis of the two. Fairburn has become known in Europe for his evocative portraits, which produce complex human features from the apparently random patterns found in mundane topographical and astrological maps. Artist Statement: My work is a direct combination of cartography and portraiture. Using traditional materials such as ink and pencil, I intervene with a range of original maps, making gradual changes to contours, roads and other patterns. These changes allow me to tease out the human form, resulting in a comfortable coexistence of figure and landscape. I aim to preserve the functionality of each map by feeding the composition instead of fighting it – I often spend hours studying each map before I begin any physical processes. I’m interested in the subtlety of each synchronization, and the way in which each completed map behaves more like a portrait when viewed from further away – it’s almost paradoxical that a portrait should lose detail when examined closely.