Installation by Shanthi Chandrasekar selected as one of Art on Paper's Projects

New York based gallery LAMINAproject will present artist Shanthi Chandrasekar's rhythmic hanging piece, titled Entropy: Macrostates & Microstates, made of hundreds of hand-punched paper circles, portrays randomness within physical systems. Chandrasekar’s delicate suspension of reiterating disks cascade from the ceiling to the floor following a fractal reduction where the smaller parts mirror the larger ones.

Entropy: Macrostates & Microstates is a site-specific installation entirely out of paper that explores the play of light and shadow, creating shapes that change as the viewer moves.  The lace-like effect formed by the overlapping of the hole-punched paper leads to complex images, questioning reality and our perception of it, and visualizing the meaning of entropy and the emergence of complexity from simplicity. In this installation, the artist attempts to capture the meaning of entropy with changing macrostates and microstates depicted by the series of hole-punched circles hung from the ceiling. Each of the thirty-six systems of circles is made from the holes punched out of its largest circle and has its own unique patterns of holes with the randomness reducing with size. The patterns in the circles describe the number of possible configurations of the component microstates that are defined by macroscopic variables. Though entropy is often interpreted as the degree of randomness or disorder in a closed system, it is a concept that plays a significant role in the workings of the cosmos and also in our lives.

Shanthi Chandrasekar is a Maryland-based artist who has been drawing and painting since early childhood. Her interest in understanding different forms of visual media has led her to experiment with drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and papermaking. She has also been trained in the traditional art forms of Kolam and Tanjore-style painting. While many of her works are influenced by her Indian heritage, her true inspiration comes from the mystery and majesty of the world around her; her muse lives where the scientific overlaps with the spiritual.