On his website, Aaron Dunn separates his artwork into a series of descriptive categories such as Photography, Macabre, Fetish, Masked, and Liquid Latex, amongst others. And while each of his series of interests shows a focus on a particular idea.
There is something elusive in each of his pieces that hold his work together. It is something that is slightly dark- a step away from average, and just on the other side of ‘normal’.
His ‘Masked’ series for me best exemplifies this edgy experimentation. Nude women in masks and stockings pose, sometimes provocatively, sometimes complacent, and sometimes simply at ease. They become something else, almost impersonal or even otherworldly while also being almost strangely sexual. In ‘Fetish’, Dunn explores some of the less typically photographed fetishes- gas masks, cocooning, fishnets, and paint. The ‘Liquid Latex’ images are reminiscent of a reptile shedding its skin or also remind me of peeling glue off my fingers. There is something very primal and sensual about the tactile clinginess to the skin.
And yet in between all of this edgy colorful darkness we see a naked girl roaming outdoors in the sunshine, and another nude woman sitting on her bed. There is something both disconcerting and yet appealing about images that are so sunny and bright mixed with others that are more mysterious and dark. I think it is this juxtaposition of the pure and beautiful- represented by the nude women, with the surreal, the messy, and the dark which categorizes Dunn’s work and charges it with sexual energy, tension, and excitement.
Article by Kayla
