Foundational

The Villa Farnesina drew me back into its quieter rooms — the ones that exist without ceremony, away from the frescoed halls that draw the crowds — and it was there that I would find what I was looking for. In one of these undecorated spaces, I came across a section of ornate plasterwork molding at the edge of a wall ceiling — its surface split by a large crack running through it, with smaller ones branching off around it, tracing paths through every carefully wrought curve like veins beneath skin, the foundational elements of the wall in quiet dispute with themselves. I photographed it as close as I could, the crack in the wall becoming the canyon of curiosity and history I longed to dive into.

The cracks run through the molding in ways that follow neither the original design nor any obvious logic — the surface splitting quietly from within while the overall structure continues to hold its shape. It is not collapsing. It is simply revealing, slowly and without drama, what accumulates inside the most carefully finished things over time.

Foundational names what we build our lives upon — the elaborate care we put into constructing something that feels solid and complete. The cracks don't announce themselves. They accumulate slowly, running through the most carefully finished parts of what we've made, until the damage is too present to overlook.

This piece is part of Bright Ruin (2025), my series of over 45 unique works shot entirely on analog film over the course of 10 days in Rome, and first exhibited at Gallery ATARAH in September 2025.