The title Entropvisions is in homage to my mother, the poet and art critic, Harriet Zinnes. In 1990 New Directions published a collection of her poems titled Entropisms, a word she made-up combining entropy - the tendency toward disorder - and tropism - the growth towards or away from a stimulus. Similarly, my short reviews combine entropy and tropism by suggesting growth towards a vision of art from the chaos of the art world. Through the back door, my title also pays homage to my physicist father, Irving Zinnes, whose long discussions with my mom got her thinking about entropy and tropism in the first place.
Donna Dennis at Private Public
2023.5.30
The Donna Dennis installation at Private Public Gallery
in Hudson, NY, up through June 11, requires time – at least 10-15
minutes – and solitude to be viewed. Sitting alone, watching the cycle
of a day’s light evolve around images of an old ship and dock, the
viewer’s own personal memories, reflections on centuries of history, the
state of our current environmental crises, and most likely much more,
morph and blend together. For me, I began to experience the eternal
cycle of the sun and earth, of day and
night, of the movement of life since the beginning of time, of the
slave trade, and humanity’s destructive interference with nature, and
each other. If you can give yourself the time, and can sit alone for a
while, the experience will be well worth your efforts, though I’m sure
you will respond completely differently from how I did.