Mapping the tumult of our time

From Kenneth Millington’s show “New Aftermaths,’’ at 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, N.H., through Nov. 29.

Mr. Millington’s artist statement:

“Kenneth Millington's paintings and drawings express an overarching interest in entropy, the universal tendency toward chaos and disorder, and forces of turbulence, disruption within flow and velocity. While these concepts naturally align with scientific investigation, the artist is interested in how they manifest in our technology, culture and stories. Entropy and turbulence are continually present in our collective histories, narratives and discoveries. His work isolates disruptions at varying levels to explore its nature as artifact, the material and methods of its expression and our symbolic language codifying it.

“As a tangible entry point to these concepts, Millington reworks the media of the comic book, with research based on his own childhood collection of 1980s and 90s comic books. Through the lens of the super-powered characters, the comics explore the human condition and societal issues forming modern-day myths. As with all myths, archetypes, challenges and consequences are present. Removing the heroes and villains leaves the aftermath of conflicts as a point of focus in the work. He collects and collages an array of random images combined with his own imagined objects. Many of these images depict destroyed spaces, collisions, explosions, debris fields and architectural remains. The result is a familiar space that has ruptured and dissolved into an entropic metaphysical landscape. These paintings and drawings map the tumult of our time and our fractured relationship to the natural world.’’