Volcanic Lava Art and Entropy: Laura Alunni's Matter

Entropy as Form: Why Disorder is My Material

There is a moment in the studio when a painting begins to resist me.

The volcanic lava I work with — ground, raw, dense with geological memory — spreads where I didn't intend. The surface opens up, pulls inward, breathes in ways I didn't plan. For years I thought this was a problem to solve. Now I understand it is the work itself.

Entropy — the tendency of all systems toward disorder — is not the enemy of form. It is form. In physics, it describes the irreversible movement from order to chaos. In volcanic matter, it is written in stone: every eruption is a transformation that cannot be undone. In my studio, it becomes the only honest way I know to make a painting.

Why I work with volcanic lava

Lava is not a decorative material. It carries within it an entire history of pressure, heat, and rupture — a violence that has already happened and solidified into silence. When I introduce it into a painting, I am not adding texture. I am adding geological time.

The surface I build with lava and pigment is never neutral. It records the moment of application, the weight of the material, the irreversibility of the gesture. What remains is not a composition: it is a stratigraphy — a record of states that no longer exist.

Detail — volcanic lava, pigment and mixed media on canvas

What entropy looks like in paint

In my current series, I work with dense, heavily built surfaces — layers of volcanic lava, pigment, sand, and medium that accumulate over weeks. Each layer preserves a state of the painting that has already passed. The final surface does not show a finished image. It shows time.

When you stand in front of one of these works, you are not looking at paint on canvas. You are reading the memory of a process — a process as irreversible as an eruption.

An invitation

If this way of thinking about painting resonates with you — if you find yourself drawn to surfaces that hold complexity, to work that refuses easy resolution — I would love to hear from you. Collectors and curators are welcome to reach out directly through the contact page.

Laura Alunni works between Perugia and the wider European contemporary art circuit. Her work explores entropy, volcanic matter, and abstraction.