Surfaces: Why We Fall in Love With Texture Before Ideas in Visual Arts

Surfaces lure us in long before we get any answers.

First Encounter

Perception of visuals is rooted so much deeper than what our vision provides. At best, all our senses are involved. When we look at a fascinating object, we want to touch it, smell it, even lick it, knock on it. If a creation provokes all these urges, we’re dealing with a synesthetic experience. Our instincts tell us to get familiar with the object on an animalistic level. Walk around, lean in, turn our head, touch, smell, press our ear to it. We probably cannot touch or lick the exhibit, but that’s okay. The craving must be enough. Imagination will suffice.

Texture and Concept 

The texture chosen by an artist and the concept it carries are forever intertwined. Cracked stone used in a sculpture translates as pain, incompletion, fracture, imperfection. Draped leather in fashion brings drama, power, dominance, an unexpected touch. A resin chair in an abstract shape plays with our minds and disarms expectations for familiarity. Texture carries meaning before any concept is explained and understood.

A Thought

After the surface-level interaction comes out our human side. The intellect. On top of our senses, there's a higher level of curiosity being shaped. Who created it? Why? What is it made of? What labor was involved in the making process? What message does it hold? Is it tangled to a personal experience? Is it a collective idea? Do I understand it? Do I like it? Do I feel satisfied looking at it? Do I feel disturbed, full of joy, disappointed, triggered? Am I connected? And, most importantly, have I changed?

Sensibility and ability to interact with visual arts is not something everyone possesses. Not all of us partake in the dialogue. Some of us will ask all the above questions, some of us many more, some of us just a few, some of us none. That’s fine. There’s no right or wrong way to interact with a piece. There’s a good chance it changes you anyway, unknowingly. 

Surface as Entry Point and Eternal Veil For Ideas

The final expression of a concept in visual arts depends vastly on a chosen texture. It awakens curiosity, analytical thinking and holds the room for interpretation, sometimes for generations. It’s always the surface we fall in love with first.