As featured in Unfolded Magazine Issue 12
Alexander Stavrou
In an attempt to make sense of his natural surroundings, Alexander
Stavrou's work explores the dynamics of natural process and the
transformation of energy into mass and form. At his first major
exhibition, at Rook and Raven, he tells us he is "fascinated with
how energy and form can come together, how they become active in a
picture or a metaphysical image." It is through the medium of
paint, he expresses that fascination, "paint has its own form,
structure. Be viewed as a chaotic substance which can become
ordered." Crucially, it is dynamic, as it can also "reverberate
between being physical and heavy as well as light and
ethereal."
In the work entitled 'Information Stratosphere' we view a comet
falling, which Alexander likens to "arresting time, reflecting on
an unreal cosmological moment which could happen". 2D triangles
take your eye through to a heavy mass, "which is sculptural in
itself", leaving a trail of hot gases, kinetic energy and movement.
The paint is a "pigment suspended in a liquid, there is
suspended debris and matter, they too are suspended
information."
He is inspired by Michaelangelo, whose work he says "tries to make
sense of heavy mass, the weight of lines and so on" and also the
works of James Terrell, whose work "focuses on the use of light and
space." Of his own work, the "continuous structure and surface of
paint lends itself to depicting a presence which evades finite
categorisation."
Born in North London and a graduate of the City & Guilds of
London Art School, the course,"helped me understand what is really
important about stand what is really important about making a
work of art and shaped my understanding." There is a slight
obsession with the triangle, enamoured by how "simple and humble
the shape is, three points on a two-dimensional plane, it reflects
the connections which exist within our natural surroundings,
elements, all sorts of things." Chaos and order is what
connects his work, "drawing from real or imagined natural
disasters", in an attempt to "seek out the physical structure of
nature."
Interview by Nardip Singh
Images supplied by Rook and Raven
Copyright © Alexander Stavrou