Entropy II (T/ime’s A/rrow, the O/nomatopoeia)

acrylic painting on magnani paper 104 x 72cm / (76 x 56cm) x 2, diptych, 300gsm, satin varnish, 2021

About artwork

Entropy is an eschatological murmuration. Surrendering to its cooling protectorate (and its dull, dire dare) will force an artist to either freeze or flock amok (since artists and groupishness don’t mix very well). This is a diptych about the Second Law of Thermodynamics and (objective) tinnitus.

Appendix

In any portrait, chromatic nutrients are sapped (more or less involuntarily) by the understanding of the fact that any (untainted) natural process has a (dubious, but unescapable) destination, and that back-tracking is a (labyrinthine) illusion. Deciding on the size of your canvases becomes (counterintuitively) trivial, considering that the (rather) inevitable transfer and transformation of energy will only lead to more and more (and more and more) (of its) waste. These are the Physics–rooted reasons why I’ve started this painting (and, in fact, the entire “Entropy” series) with an en Brunaille intent.  But the deluge of potential nuances overwhelmed the coherence of my work, so stratification (and sublimation) became paramount. As an architect, I feel at ease tinkering with Sgraffito “frequency responses”. I wanted to propagate them into the acrylic. Only a Brutalist resolve stopped me from overwhelming you with ornamental clues that would have artificially increased the musicality of this work. But I wanted this painting to reverberate like Arvo Part’s Kanon Pokajanen, not like Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Just as I wanted it to smell like adulterated metropolitan snow, and not like a pastoral summer rain. If my chromatic impulsiveness was nurtured by Caravaggio (Polidoro da, to be precise), it came to terms with itself once (K) Malevich lowered my heartbeat. And trapped inside this trek, there is a (achromatic and ominous) susurration. One can hear it in Rome, outside the Palazzo Massimo Istoriato, just as loudly as one can hear it while crashing White on White. I hear it in this work, too. I think it holds an aviary panache that describes one’s (orderly) aging migration, which, in turn, puts a swooshing spin on one’s solipsism. In short, otology trumps ontology. However (once you’ve open your eyes again), parenthesis trapped the only truths that mattered, for they were as fungible as stained-glass shards, and the artist – their jailor, who craved the catharsis of a “Brutalisme lyrique” – neglected to set them free, too.

More details on “Entropy” series: https://alexandru-crisan.com/projects/entropy/

BOOK DETAILS:

Published by CoA (Collect Art) volume 5, 2024 edition with “Entropy II (T/ime’s A/rrow, the O/nomatopoeia)” / © Alexandru Crisan 2021

editor: CoA
format: 21 x 21 cm
year: published in February 2024
details: 238 pages

You can order the book  at: https://www.collectartwork.org/books