The Edge of Chaos : Entropy II 2019

Sami Gattoufi made this artwork ‘The Edge of Chaos: Entropy II,’ and I can imagine that the image emerged as a fluid dance between intent and accident. The artist carefully applied lines and watched what would emerge as the image came into being. I can imagine the artist really sympathizing with this character while drawing him. He looks like a person with an enormous story and probably lots of trauma too, he could be a character from a film. The character’s identity seems to emerge from the very act of drawing him. With each curve and stroke, Gattoufi seems to navigate the boundary between representation and abstraction. The bold use of line captures something, some essence, of a human head emerging out of a turbulent mass. We see the kind of work that many artists do in their sketchbooks. The piece shows us that art is not about having answers, but it's about the questions we ask, and the way we respond to an image as it emerges.