Physis

After a phase of abstraction in which the geometric and dominant form was simple, regular and repetitive (Sebastián took delight in the module and used it to draw decorative and playful valances, or perhaps oppressive mazes) the painter began to favour a work of vagueness and chromatic graduation that also appeared in his early work but that now no longer appeared as ‘background’ but began to engage in a battle with the structure. From a simply visual analysis, linking Physis with the author’s previous work leads to understanding the piece (and the whole eponymous series to which the canvas belongs) as a significant step in such a process. In Physis, geometry promises to stand out and ends up receding. It begins to emerge and tends to dissolve. (Even in some paintings from the series Sebastian avoids all geometric forms and depicts only a chromatic magma: it rules, leaving it only the limits of the support.)
And the fact is that this canvas, like the series, has some links to the author’s previous work. The time of valances, which initially seemed fun, ultimately turned out to be exasperating because it was eternally labyrinthine: it was a circular time. Also the material of Physis is initially joyful: now, because it is grandiose and ethereal, vast and generous; but at the same time the work is just getting us into a sort of state of loss, of lack of direction.
Physis, jusiV, is a term which refers to an understanding of what it designates (“nature”) as original matter and therefore primordial. The series is based on the four elements described as fundamental by pre-Socratic natural philosophy: earth, water, air, fire. The universe implies a harmony, but it still battles with disorder and chaos.
A return to pre-Socratic philosophy... I don’t know if Sebastian rejects the subsequent effort. He certainly questions it. The image offers a cloudy space in which glimpses of splendid light are accompanied by abysses of unlimited vacuum. The balance seems perfect; but this movement we cannot associate with a particular direction. We do not know if the image recedes backwards; if it goes forward. If its general rhythm is concentric, if it is expansive. Nature holds in any case its own freewill. Our order is insufficient. Where it emerges, the square is also there where it will dissolve. The work impels one to imagine beforehand only something equal to what is to come later.
Amaya Ascunce Parada