Alina Aldea's first solo exhibition in Berlin, entitled "Butterfly Effect", was conceived as an insert in the framework of the fashion concept store Maisonnoée. Known for her site-specific installations, artist Alina Aldea has created a dialogue between her drawings and the clothing creations of designer Sophie Oemus (née Böhmert).
MAISONNOÉE is a Berlin-based high-quality prêt-à-porter fashion brand founded in 2013 by designer Sophie Oemus (née Böhmert). Clear cuts, simple, feminine and timeless elegance with selected materials define all of MAISONNOÉE´s collections.
Alina Aldea's "G_Series" and designer Sophie Oemus' clothing creations, conceived through a system of complex networks of fine lines, refer to the concept of the "butterfly effect".
Long before the theory of the "butterfly effect" was identified, as early as the 14th century in England and the 13th century in Germany, a proverb circulated, poetically reinterpreted by Benjamin Franklin, as follows:
“For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the ride was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”
Alina Aldea's creation is grounded on research on the "butterfly effect" and chaos theory. The “G_Series” drawings, started in 2019 and continued in 2021, are a complete scan of a system of lines and patterns, where any small change can give rise to new forms of interpretation. Edward Lorenz, who identified the notion of the "butterfly effect”, imagines the concept as the flapping of butterfly wings, which can result in the creation of a typhoon. Lorenz believes that without a perfect idea of initial conditions, predictions are meaningless. The butterfly is a symbolic representation of a negligible and/or unknown quantity. Small events can catalyze a major impact on initial conditions.
The joining of lines in white ink on black paper, which give rise to the drawings in the “G_Series”, is thought of as functioning in a single system, in which each line drawn is influenced by the other lines, which make up the final image. Creating a complex system in which only the result is visible. Any disposal of a stroke leads to disruption of the system, destruction of order, and chaos.
There is no way to predict the outcome, that the artist imagined in the drawing. In other words, it is impossible to know the initial conditions that triggered this jumble of lines and patterns, and any small change even in our visual perception can completely change the way we interpret the result.
In the classic science fiction story "A Sound of a Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, the main character Eckels wonders:
“It felt to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of a small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckles’ mind whirled. I couldn’t change things. Killing one butterfly couldn’t be that important! Could it?”
Curator: Diana Dochia
