Mental Kingdom
Aldridge’s working method revolves around a concern in the belief in images. Always interested in mankind’s relationship with nature, folklore, and the superstition, the artist returns to subjects involving death, life, and landscape as well as belief, good, and evil. Aldridge derives his painterly inspiration from a wide range of (art historical) sources such as natural history field guides and Renaissance landscape painting. John James Audubon’s 19th century illustrated documentation of all types of American birds and the covers of heavy metal albums are also referenced in his practice. These different influences culminate in a characteristic style that combines a variety of techniques and forms. The tension between different though inseparable notions of nature – that is both beautifully consolatory and overwhelmingly haunting – makes a feeling of melancholia inescapable.