entropic melodies

"The word "entropy" refers to the state of natural decay displayed by the three dilapidated buildings that are the subject of this tonal poem. The images were all captured during two recent rapid "bursts" of picture taking over the span of about two hours each on two separate occasions. The "mystery" refers to how I was inexplicably "driven" (unconsciously, as though possessed by an inner mission) to find "old/abandoned" buildings. I drove 50 and 75 miles, respectively, in search of these buildings; and I did not consciously find them. It was only after my conscious mind decided to turn back home at the next exit (coincidentally, both times this happened at the exit toward "Warrenton" (Northern VA); on Route 66 the first time and along Interstate 95, the second), that I (or rather my inner "eye") caught sight of the buildings, certain elements of which are shown below. The deeper mystery is how, despite their profound state of ruin, they are all somehow palpably, and powerfully, alive! The typically clean, chiseled forms and lines of "new" modern buildings are, by comparison, sterile and devoid of the life that permeates, and radiates from, these older living structures."


it's probably not a good idea to let artists spend too much time reading science. otherwise, you get statements like the one above. for the most part, artists are the last folks who need to be talking about what they're doing. most of the time, they don't know themselves.

this guy's series of decayed buildings appealed to me. i remember walking around in the ruins of the tiki motel as it was being razed. i did the same when the capri motel came down too. what i found interesting was gauging the degree in decay of my memories juxtaposed to the ruins of site specific memory origins. there's that scene in a nick ray film w/robert mitchum, the lusty men, where mitchum returns to his family farm, now in ruins. he slides up under the porch & finds the key to the front door just where he'd left it years ago. that scene, & the whole film, is a deeply melancholic meditation on home & loss & retrieval. these buildings resemble that scene(also shot in b/w).

this whole series strikes me as melancholic as opposed to mournful. freud drew the distinction but it revolves mainly around issues that have either been repressed or sublimated. sublimation is a good thing; repression, not so much. there's a strong scent of thanatos(the death instinct)in these pictures. what i see here is uncontained loss & the pull of decay. the professional framing doesn't relieve the impulse towards decay. the black & white either/or presents us w/no resolution.

standing in the ruins of the tiki motel, i felt the tide of time pulling everything i'd experienced there out to sea. looking at these pictures, i'm not sure i feel the inexorable action of time. i don't think i feel anything but what i see is decay & ruin w/o its humanity & that's really where all that counts.