My encounter with David Chapman’s Meaningness and nebulosity and pattern had another fulfilling side effect discovery. The simplicity of the concepts he uses to describe complex matters is truly fascinating. Explaining meaningfulness and meaninglessness through two states being nebulous and patterned seems reductionist at first. But once you spend a little longer with these words, the complexity unfolds and reveals the beauty of it which is not frightening but cosy and inciting to engage with. There is an emerging theory called simplexity that proposes possible complementary relationship between complexity and simplicity. I found it an appealing proposition to deal with inaccessible complexity. Very often in case of discourse points to the history of discourse itself. For example, gender politics, inequality, racial discrimination etc. The proposition of simplexity is to move some layers of abstraction down and get to the simple core principal. In the case of the problems stated above the underlying factors would be power and even going one layer deeper we can think what power is and look at it through ability to move. Once identified, we can slowly build up examination and move towards the resolution of a problem from a different perspective. Through mindful assessment of a complex occurrence we can distil the simple notion and allow to access the complexity underneath. The same applies for nebulosity and pattern. They give access to something which is otherwise too complex, being so open and imaginative allows for the process of discovery to begin.
The other day the word viscosity came up in a conversation as being my deep code characteristic. This observation was made based on certain choices I make, unconscious attractors in chose-making as well as in my daily routines but also what I am drawn to in my practice. The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. Different liquids have different resistance, they flow on different tempo, leaving trace, changing everything they touch. Once I heard it, it immediately resonated with me, I must admit there was a rather unexperienced before sensation. Like I indeed understood something about me that was all the way there but I hadn’t noticed. It felt like coming home. I am aware that it sounds vague, how one can experience something like that after hearing a word that resonates, but it did happen the way I described. Sweet experience of things making sense. I started to dive deeper into the theory of fluids and flows and discovered many similarities in the way I live my life and what I think is important. My nebulosity found its pattern, pattern that is always in motion.
I had to look at my works, through the lens of viscosity. Their flow, density and unfixed formation that is always moving. Accumulations of objects that stick together and then fall apart, reorganising themselves into new arrangements. I have always been recycling my works, giving them new forms. My whole practice is a compilation of various fluids with different viscosity.
A glue that binds parts together, sometimes a stream of that which moves at different speeds, you can drink me without fear, dying of one form always results in another. At times a sweet juice of watermelon running down the hands. A sticky honey in the hair, and an oil that helps to move smoothly, at times a blood that stains and dries out with a movement. A black ink that resists flowing. A thick resin that seals the wounds and protects life. Always in relation to something, open to mutual movement, yet streaming at my own pace. I interact with what I come across dance with it, move together and move along. At times, the dance lasts longer or only a fraction of a moment. I move and carry, everything that dissolves, changes my viscosity forever and gains eternal life in return. I give into the mould with joy and pleasure filling the holes and all the hidden parts of a cast, looking for cracks to pour out or when the container can’t hold me anymore I overflow leaving some parts behind and moving further. My purpose is to react, adapt, absorb and transform while keeping the movement alive at any cost.