EMBRACE CHAOS
A two-man exhibit by Pat Frades and Pejie Abia
Chaos theory suggests that in nature, out of the many random, disorderly things that happen around us, order starts to gradually emerge. The revolutions of the planets, the fractals of snowflakes, layers of eroded rock – all the way down to the smallest of flowers that blossoms unpredictably, yet surely. In our own lives, we perceive chaos as a state of opposition, one that contrasts order and comfort. We hardly find ourselves sitting in such chaos long enough to see natural order bloom.
Pat Frades and Pejie Abia invite this chaos into their art. Whimsical as they are introspective, their works challenge our perceptions of what our natural state truly is. Invoking the ordered chaos of nature, their works simply exist in the in between. Not differentiating the chaotic from the non, but accepting them both as facets of our individual natures.
Frades’s sculptures evoke the chaotic germination of spores. Teeming with colorful bulbs and burgeoning flowers, her works invite one to observe the beauty in such disarray. Where chaos usually sprouts like an unwanted growth, in Frades’s works, it flourishes with harmony in a playful symbiosis. Abia’s illustrations merge the fantastical and the familiar. Similar to Frades, Abia imbues his sketches with an organic, fungal character that grows out of faces or depictions of the ordinary. In his works, alien plant life bursts out of a woman’s face, who, despite the chaos, appears at peace.
Motivating both artists is the notion that chaos can be transformative. It invites change both internally and externally and ultimately leaves the mind at ease knowing that even the rockiest of paths can be traversed. When we embrace chaos, we embrace the unknown. And instead of being engulfed by uncertainty, we witness the growth of something new and unexpected.
– Mara Fabella
