October 28th- November 18th
Textures And Fear In The Digital World By Aidan Edwards Is A 10-Piece Solo Exhibition Of Works That Explore Fear Through The Digital Recontextualization Of Texture. This Exhibition Aims To Push Audiences To Consider How The Fluidity Of Perception And Even Commonly Perceived Textures Can Evoke Strong Emotions Like Fear When Presented In A New Light.
The purpose of this showing is to make people rethink the limits of what texture can be. Each work is my way of searching for new means by which to reevaluate my perception of the world. I believe digital texture can be a means by which one expresses feeling that is beyond the scope of traditional techniques or mediums.
The specific process used in this showcase is an integral aspect of nearly all of my works. Each digital texture begins with a photograph of an object or surface that I see in everyday life. These images are then digitally manipulated using tens to hundreds of layered color fills, creating unique visual textures used to create the final compositions. I discovered this method years ago when I was still in high school. My parents had ordered a new iPad as my Christmas gift, and I was extraordinarily excited (maybe a bit impatient) for it to arrive. So, in my obsessive glee I immediately took a terrible photograph of an unfinished sketch of mine and imported it into every illustration app I could find on my phone. Spending hours playing with every tool available to me in each app, I began to notice that when using the ‘Fill’ tool on the photo strangely captivating and complex textures would snake their way across my screen. Better yet, I could control this eect through the manipulation of lighting alongside careful tweaking with the ‘threshold’ slider. What initially seemed like a mistake caused by my lazy photography soon became the catalyst for years of exploration and the development of my exploratory creative process. Hundreds of experimental digital textures have led to the refinement of this process and, ultimately, this exhibition.
Fear is an emotion that is experienced dierently by every individual who is confronted by it. Digital Texture, a medium that I have found to be particularly experimental, provides an eccentric lens through which to showcase my fears. In short, this exhibition displays my experiences with fear through a new, digital, perspective.
