ROCKPORT — It’s a quiet weekday afternoon. There’s no one is in Center for Maine Contemporary Art, not even a receptionist. It’s silent except for a mechanical churning sound in the back area of the first floor, which I’ll get to in a second. In a way, it’s better to get the full impression of the latest art installments from the Resisting Entropy III show currently on display at CMCA in Rockport on a day like this, rather than on the busy opening night.

To walk around and be able to take in each piece without distraction allows me to try to figure out why each artist chose to incorporate certain discarded items into the piece. Some of the generated artwork is serious; but true to form, some of it is completely absurd and tongue in cheek. That’s the look they were going for.

The 2015 "Resisting Entropy III" artists who participated in this 24-hour art-making event at CMCA included David Allen, Alan Clark, Jared Cowan, Bethany Engstrom, Andy Hamm, Alexis Iammarino, Siglinde Langholz, Eric Leppanen, Cristin Millet, Trelawney O’Brien, Jennifer Wilkey, and Andrew White.

They started at around noon on Friday, confronted with a sizable heap of discarded and junked materials, and, over the next 24 hours, transformed the pile into unique and unpredictable artworks. By Saturday at noon, they were exhausted, but done. The opening reception was April 11.

Whether it’s an abstract box sculpture hanging from the ceiling, or a styrofoam head floating in a tub of glitter or an actual reproduction of a messy workbench (complete with a nearly empty bottle of whiskey and photos of the artist’s kids tacked into the corner), each piece was a spur of the moment decision and begs the viewer to come a little closer. That’s it. A little closer. Now really take a look. Do you get it now?

See our gallery below as well as the short video of the dynamic bicycle installment (the source of the mechanical churning).

Note: the following gallery only includes artworks from the first floor, but the second floor also contains the rest of the Resisting Entropy show. All artworks are for sale. Inquire at CMCA for more information. The show runs today and tomorrow and comes down Sunday, April 26, so see it while you can!

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com