Ed Fairburn – Faces Hidden in Maps
Ed Fairburn is an artist and illustrator based in Cardiff, UK. He draws, constructs and paints using numerous tangible media across the wide range of surfaces and contexts, allowing his practice to exist across various disciplines. The work Ed produces is mostly self-directed which allows him to explore his concepts and ideas. His exciting map-portraits bring old maps and their intricate beauty back to life as a unique canvas for this stunning work. He uses the contours and plotted elements of world maps to forge complicated outlines of human facial features. “I study what I’m going to draw. I study the patterns in the human figure and study the patterns in the maps and synchronise the two together,” he says. Fairburn uses the chaotic patchwork of rivers, trains, and roads printed on maps as the framework for these portraits.
