MEDITATIONS IN ENTROPY
Featuring the fine art of Jamila & Mikeal Béland.
December 10 - 20, 2009 at Thornton Gallery, New York, NY.    Opening December 10th 5-9 PM.

Download full artist statement & list of works

View photos from the opening

View photos of the artworks

COLLECTIVE STATEMENT

Our relationship with the physical world is full of question marks. Despite the efforts of many great thinkers, including Plato, Plotinus, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, and numerous others; and even after modern science has demonstrated the inner workings of the brain and body, we are still trying to comprehend the complex and abstract concept of the self, one seemingly material and real, yet somehow fleeting and elusive.

Meditations in Entropy channels this web of thought ever-present in human enquiry since Antiquity. Béland and Jamila present their meditations on the subject in the form of images, textures, scents, even sounds. Rather than speculating on nature, they work within it, observing the forms that surround them and letting their creative will capture, edit, bend and shape them. The inherent entropy of their subject matter—residual elements of the natural world—inspires them; their processes involve additional transformations via photography, digital web ASCII conversions, and traditional mixed media applications.

JAMILA'S STATEMENT

Matter from the Earth is at once fragile and fated to disintegrate over time, yet simultaneously robust and teeming with the willpower of elements that resist manipulation to their best abilities. The resulting work is a reconciliation of this dueling nature of physical forms. It is also a process through which I develop an intimate understanding and respect for the entropic forces that so quietly govern my own body and its environment. The process is primitive in its ancient tradition, modernized by the synthetic paints, adhesives and seals that can extend and preserve. In various states of decay, the matter is captured in a moment; subject to time and air, it will continue some of its dehydration and visually display this evolution. Critical to the complete decomposition of plant matter is the presence of other living organisms, including plant, insect and animal—without these agents of destruction, the organic tissues cannot completely break down to their basic elements. I turn this matter into "art." If left on the ground, it would become dirt. Funny, isn't it?