In the order shown
Islands Endangered, acrylic on canvas, 255 x 150 cm
Augmented Temperature, acrylic on canvas, 189 x 219 cm
Camouflage Warming, acrylic on canvas, 148 x 210 cm
Heat Stroke 1 – 4, acrylic on canvas, 93 x 90 cm or 93 x 93 cm, each one
Tarball Drama, acrylic on canvas, 189 x 180 cm
Tarball Affair, acrylic on canvas, 199 x 189 cm
Inflated Bubbles, acrylic on canvas, 164 x 189 cm
Catastrophe is never fully visible at close range. We know the universe wholly through our immediate physical and emotional sensations, not so much by our intellect. Even what we see is questionable. The things that affect us most are either too close or too far away, too big or too small. It is all a blur. The truth is that by the time disaster hits, it’s too late. Artist Eleni Phyla’s immersive show “It’s Getting Hot in Here” conjures the mounting crisis in our illusory, sensate relationship with the natural environment.
Large-scale canvases inspired by geothermal maps evoke terrestrial forms in vivid haptic colors. Islands Endangered (2020) mimics a scientific visualization of the extreme disparities in temperatures manifested by the proliferating conditions of climatic change; its livid hot spots, gradating from yellow and pink to dark red, float in a sea of cool to deep blues. The amoebic shapes nearly metamorphose before your eyes in a dynamic interplay that reflects the vital symbiosis that fuels the cosmos. Cathryn Drake
Photography by Emma Louise Charalambous at the Edit Gallery
Eleni Phyla 