Crystal Vision

Local gallery owner’s film delivers a message about how to live in the world

The walls of Patrick Lysaght’s Entropy Gallery (1220 Parkway Drive, (512) 364-3600) showcase nature’s aesthetic and symbiotic beauty. The engineer/artist’s images of fluid flows and crystal structures—in fire, sand and water—illustrate scientific and artistic principles, but also serve as a launchpad for what Lysaght describes as a “call to action to preserve truth.”

The project began during the pandemic, when Lysaght organized his photographs into a book, which then morphed into the 50-minute art documentary film Fleeting Structures. While the film certainly showcases the structure of fluid flow and crystal growth—visually and with explication through Lysaght’s narration—it also delves into humanity’s relationship to nature and the artist’s preoccupation with entropy—as both a scientific concept and metaphor.

“Entropy is a measure of randomness, how mixed up a system may be and how uncertain we are about that system,” Lysaght narrates in the film.

The extent to which human behavior has disrupted the critical balance in nature underpins the film’s thesis, which is “activism as a civic duty.” Specifically, Lysaght calls for boycotts.

“If everybody across the globe says, ‘fuck Amazon, fuck Exxon, we’re not going to buy anything from them,’ they will do the heavy lifting, and they’ll change policy,” Lysaght tells SFR during a tour of his gallery (which is open from 5 to 7 pm on Fridays). “People can’t do that directly; I can be carrying a sign in front of the Capitol ‘til the cows come home. Nobody’s going to listen to me.”

While he intends the film as a call to action and a rebuke to what he calls in his book “the disgraceful anti-science movement,” the film resists polemics by grounding itself in Lysaght’s images, which he aptly characterizes as “lyrical portraits of entropy.” Both provocative and visually stimulating, Fleeting Structures has screened and received accolades at myriad film festivals; this week’s showing at the Jean Cocteau Cinema will include an introduction by and Q&A with Lysaght. (Julia Goldberg)

Fleeting Structure: 7 pm, Tuesday, July 18. $10. Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., (505) 466-5528; entropygallery.com

Thank You for the Music

We have a confession for you, dear reader: In our elementary school music nerd days, we thought ABBA’s name was an acronym for their reliably catchy song structures rather than the first—and almost unbearably nordic—initials of members Anni-Frid, Björn, Benny and (no kidding) Agnetha. But even at that tender age, we knew well enough to scream along during “Fernando” to the line about “the fateful night we crossed the Rio Grande.” The chance to do so with go-go booted performers—New Mexican tribute band ABBAquerque—who’ve actually seen the river in question just adds a little extra norteño magic to the ‘70s nostalgia. (Siena Sofia Bergt)

ABBAquerque: 8 pm Saturday, July 15. $10. Mine Shaft Tavern, 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid, (505) 473-0743

16(mm) Candles

16mm film stock turns 100 this year, which should be exciting to anybody who likes movies for two reasons: First, it’s a more time-proof medium for preserving beloved flicks than digital copies, which are constantly becoming outdated. And, as No Name Cinema’s Justin Rhody notes, “It’s special because it’s sharper than super 8 and versatile, whereas 35mm is big and expensive.” That flexibility has yielded a banquet of imagery from the eye-slitting of Un Chien Andalou to the uncanny stop motion of the Brothers Quay’s Street of Crocodiles—a cornucopia which No Name celebrates onscreen (alongside other 16mm prints) at its cinematic centennial event this Saturday. (SSB)

Celluloid Showcase: 7:30 pm Saturday, July 15. $5-$15 suggested. No Name Cinema, 2013 Pinon St., nonamecinema.org.

The G.O.A.T.s

Now that the crowds of the newly relocated International Folk Art Market have cleared out of the Railyard Park, the area’s native plants are in for some pampering (and pooping) courtesy of a hooved herd brought by The Railyard Park Conservancy, the Quivira Coalition and Horned Locust Goatscaping. And while everybody loves a properly fuzzy sheep coat, it’s important that these three groups will bring goats—satisfyingly, the bearded bleaters are able to digest goat head weeds which would poison their ovine brethren. Go cheer ‘em on, why don’t you? They’re among our most productive public servants. And good lord, they’re cute. (SSB)

Graze Days: 10 am-4 pm Tuesday, July 18. Free. Railyard Park, 740 Cerrillos Road, (505) 316-3596