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Views on Entropy – 2018

24 April–29 May 2018

Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

Entropy, a thermodynamic concept, can be most simply defined as a measure of disorder, used to explain transfers of energy and processes of time by registering the passage from order to disorder within a given system. Being an invisible entity, the title Views on Entropy sets up an interesting contradiction. Enclosed within this title is Lourens’ on going desire to capture the hidden and the liminal, forces out of sight, even as he faithfully records and meticulously depicts the apprehensible world in his signature photorealism. The title likewise signals a process of reflection, of observation, consideration; a process which Lourens continually engages with in a reiteration of spatial motifs. The artist’s return to similar scenes and variables – sky, cloud, dusk, industria — might be read as a mantra, a meditative practice, perhaps even an obsession. Just as with meditation, each reiteration of the practice initiates expansion, a widening of understanding.

As with his previous exhibition, Proximity by Proxy, presented by Barnard in 2016, Lourens is fundamentally concerned with the relationship between land and subject, and the degrees of separation between them. He continuously examines the dynamics of psychological imprinting on and within landscapes, a process which remains deeply personal to the artist. Land, memory and subjectivity remain inextricably intertwined, representing a relationship which is never without tension and unease. As his career progresses and his practice evolves, Lourens captures ever more subtleties within this relationship, this calibration of subject, landscape, sky and light. And yet, in choosing entropy as a guiding concept, Lourens signals that the outcome of this prolonged investigation is not order but disorder. What is sought for in this career long conversation with the dynamics of space is not a stabilisation but a destabilisation of truth, a multiplication of nuance rather than a reach for authority.

This investigation into entropy as well as the desire to move beyond the surface registers in Lourens’ techniques, which continue the work done in Proximity by Proxy in a loosening of brushwork, forms, line and texture. The contrast between highly realised forms and spaces of abstraction and play is even more striking in this new body of work. The pixel and pixelation appears as reoccurring motifs in here, as Lourens begins to consider the ways in which digital media affect the way we view representations of space. The pixel, as a piece of visual information which has not successfully rendered and thus remains inaccessible, denotes a fractured image. It disrupts the viewing process, frustrating the viewer, concealing something from our view, obstructing our automatic assimilation of the image. A pixelated image thus challenges the authority of the viewer, denies our scopophilia. Thus Lourens is able to further extend his complication and confusion of surface, which is also present here in the presentation of film media as well as experimental “cut out” paintings. This rupturing of visual boundaries mirrors a fracturing of the boundaries within the spaces represented, and the delineations of self and other within them.

MJ Lourens, Pataphor, 2018, Acrylic on board, 68.5 × 48.5 cm

Pataphor
2018
Acrylic on board
68.5 × 48.5 cm

MJ Lourens, Controlled cooking, 2018, Acrylic on board,  40 × 60 cm

Controlled cooking
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Drive by / Day's end, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Drive by / Day's end
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, There There, 2018, Acrylic on board, 47 × 90 cm

There There
2018
Acrylic on board
47 × 90 cm

MJ Lourens, There There, 2018, Acrylic on board, 47 × 90 cm

Side view

MJ Lourens, Full disclosure, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Full disclosure
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, New February, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

New February
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Undertones of reason, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Undertones of reason
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Ode to winter, 2018, Acrylic on board, 21 × 58 cm

Ode to winter
2018
Acrylic on board
21 × 58 cm

MJ Lourens, Ode to winter, 2018, Acrylic on board, 21 × 58 cm

Side view

MJ Lourens, Ode to chemistry, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Ode to chemistry
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Ode to chemistry ii, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Ode to chemistry ii
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, The spoils of autumn, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

The spoils of autumn
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Fogged view, 2018, Acrylic on board, 34 × 61 cm

Fogged view
2018
Acrylic on board
34 × 61 cm

MJ Lourens, Fogged view, 2018, Acrylic on board, 34 × 61 cm

Side view

MJ Lourens, Pataphor iii, 2018, Acrylic on board, 68.5 × 48.5 cm

Pataphor iii
2018
Acrylic on board
685 × 485 mm

MJ Lourens, Place, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Place
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, End of summer, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

End of summer
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Prospecting, 2018, Acrylic on board, 30 × 70 cm

Prospecting
2018
Acrylic on board
30 × 70 cm

MJ Lourens, Prospecting, 2018, Acrylic on board, 30 × 70 cm

Side view

MJ Lourens, The fall of apathy, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

The fall of apathy
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, The fall of apathy II, 2018, Acrylic on board, 180 × 220 cm

The fall of apathy II
2018
Acrylic on board
180 × 220 cm

MJ Lourens, The pros and cons of distance, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

The pros and cons of distance
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, Birth / #centoner, 2018, Acrylic on board, 47 × 90 cm

Birth / #centoner
2018
Acrylic on board
47 × 90 cm

Birth / #centoner, 2018, Acrylic on board, 47 × 90 cm

Side view

MJ Lourens, Arial dilemma, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

Arial dilemma
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

MJ Lourens, The chase, 2018, Acrylic on board, 40 × 60 cm

The chase
2018
Acrylic on board
40 × 60 cm

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