New Portraits Drawn on Maps and Star Charts by Ed Fairburn

Ed Fairburn draws portraits onto paper that already carries a map. Across a vintage road map of south-west Scotland, with Ayrshire, Kirkcudbright and Lanark printed over it, a woman’s face in profile appears in dense cross-hatching. The darkest passages fall where the map turns to forest and hill.

On a circular star chart headed “Visible Heavens from July 22nd to October 31st”, a second face fills the disc, shaded with the same hatched marks that describe the constellations inside it.

English artist Ed Fairburn works in pencil and ink on paper that was never meant to be drawn on.