stuart bailes. photographs.

I don't have the images scanned so I'm going to talk about three images you do not know but I know that and I'm using this platform to order my thoughts.

Entropy (triptych) is a series of three very dark images that illuminate a textural pattern that resembles a surface. The reductionist approach to these images is specific and important. I would like to bring to the forefront the second law of thermodynamics and the measure of cosmic order, entropy. This beautiful term is the measurement of order as a whole and regardless of its parts.

The human race strive for order, possibly to avoid the anxieties of boredom. We achieve this through the development of knowledge which does not necessarily conclude with power but more likely, order. The reduction of the idea into a single object, a single artwork or image, is a huge task for the artist. One must render their idea, or their view, into a state of equilibrium when the image has reached its maximum entropy, reduced disorder into order, for the viewer to then unpack those ideas into a constructive experience.

The entropy triptych continues to question ones perception of landscape but more so ones perception of the artwork. The challenge is to order so many ideas into the greatest reduction from the mass of the disorder. The tension reduction from cosmos to framed image results in an increase of entropy, which is beautifully in keeping with ones obsession to order. So what happens when the ordering of parts are interrupted especially within the realm of landscape? I enjoy thinking about the psycho analytical approach to my work and try and predict possible readings but I think that when one reveals the minimal amount of information within an image the viewer will always try and fill in the blanks. This of course relies on time. Time the viewer is willing to give in meditation, to find the possibilities.

The act of looking is a pleasurable experience. To look is to create. Art is knowledge through the displacement and experience of entropic change. The Entropy Triptych is an attempt to explore the gestalt psychology of the photographic image. Can the image in a state of equilibrium become more than the sum of its parts? Well if the image is reduced to a texture and concealment where only a minimum is revealed then the whole image becomes greater than the sum of its parts. The triptych encourages an overwhelming reading of the whole image through personal experience and through the supreme reign of entropy.

I'm sure I've contradicted myself many times here but I'll save it as a word file and come back to these thoughts and revise this short text. I am interested in pursuing these complex ideas regarding the experience of looking at photographic images. It is key to my work although I have only recently discovered this.