Alice Kim: Texture

Concepts from Launching the Imagination

Picture 1. Texture on the building.
Texture is the surface quality of an object. People experience texture when they touch objects and feel their roughness, smoothness or patterns. It refers to the visual or tactile quality of a form. Texture is the artist's way of mapping these tactile impressions on to the two-dimensional and three-dimensional object. Texture is created by varying the pattern of light and dark areas on an object. Notice how the areas of light and dark give the impression of depth to the image below. Also, in three-dimensional design, the increased surface area of a volume, combined with the physical immediacy of sculpture, heightens the impact of texture. The surface area shifts and turns, enclosing the physical volume.

Picture 2. Texture on clays

Texture can enhance or deny our understanding of a physical form. For example, the lines carved into the surface of the vessel increase its dimensionality. There is also a term called textural animation. The textures are animated on the surface of the “Nunnery,” a Mayan building that adjoins the Pyramid of the Magician in Uxmal, Mexico. They carved human and animal figures. This texture highly gives the energy to the building

Every material has its own native textural properties. For example, fluid materials such as clay, glass, or metal have their own different texture, and gives different feelings.