His work engages with visual and architectural traditions while exploring the intricate relationships between perception and myth.

Gostelie’s work may be vaguely placed within the greater tradition of conceptual art in which the image itself succumbs to the process of creation. Much like Romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich – who sought to capture the awe-inspiring forces of nature and the sublime – Gostelie uses his practice to address the elusive boundaries between real and imagined. On the other side of the spectrum, his work alludes to Anselm Kiefer’s monumental and abrasive works that symbolize the role that myth, history and philosophy play in the transience of our existence. “Mutations, Monuments and Myths” addresses the human tendency to accumulate chaotic, random elements and turn them into structures of power and worship.

The artist’s processwork is inspired by Ludwig Boltzmann’s (1844-1906) theories on entropy, particularly the idea that disorder and randomness are fundamental to natural processes. Boltzmann demonstrated that unbeknownst to us, tiny particles within objects are constantly rearranging into random micro-configurations, as long as these variations result in the same overall macro-configuration, the alteration is imperceptible. By the same token, his work indicates how micro-configurations of form may not seem to change the macro-configuration of the object: the haystack remains a haystack. Just as entropy undermines the persistence of order, the haystack challenges the notion of fixed memory as it is subject to transformation through those who remember it.

The monumental-like shapes reference an inherent drive to submit to myths and mythical monuments. The seductive and almost sublime forms created by the haystack propose a juxtaposition between truth and myth, image and reimagination, reality and photography. Gostelie’s images are deliberately ‘constructed’ from elements that are ‘real,’ yet the resulting composition is something we recognize as fictional but still want to accept and believe in. The evolution of the primary image mirrors Gostelie’s assertion that humans are inclined to believe stories that, although constructed, exist as cohesive forces. The visual language of myths regularly borrows from the nostalgic elements of the past, the original haystack becomes a distant memory that succumbs to its mythical reimagination.

Gostelie engages with the visual and architectural language of myths by constructing monuments that embody power and persuasion. His works themselves become myths, as they are composed of ‘real’ elements but are clearly not factual. The original picture of the haystack is left at the mercy of our mnemonic devices; myth and history submerge in a synthesis of fictionalized monuments that we praise as ultimate truths. Gostelie’s work addresses current developments.

The haystack thus becomes the material manifestation of a broader cultural and political struggle, where mythmaking, memory, and history are used to legitimize political objectives.

Myths exist as mechanisms through which power and ideologies are maintained, contested, or created.