Alpine Valleys lie within a temporal gray zone, they straddle the see-saw of time between human traces and a seemingly eternal nature. They hold within their physical boundaries a multiplicity of existences, stones, grass, trees, mosses comprise a landscape who’s formation exists outside of human memory. The human markers of time, churches, farmhouses, crosses, roads are set into the earth in seeming eternity. Yet the complex natural ecosystems always work to reclaim space, slowly transforming these heavy human marks into mere traces.
The images in Fantasmi e Figure were made walking a hiking route built for modern day tourism, following the supposed route of San Vigilio, a saint who trekked into the valleys adjacent to Trentino, Italy in 400 A.D. to evangelize the pagan inhabitants.
Slowly walking one begins to tune into details that lie at the boundaries, the clashing points of different time scales. Religious icons, inscriptions on stone walls, are set into turf and ancient forests. Modern roads lie over alpine waters flowing over thousands of year old stones aiding in their life cycle of disintegration. Through attempting to grasp the meeting points between human and non-human temporalities, time becomes obscured. While time marches forward in its unending journey, the marks of its speed are expressed as an infinite matrix of multiplicity. Within this complex architecture an important reality begins to emerge from the valley’s essence; that human history, and present existance are inextricably tied to the destiny of earth's ecosystems. Fantasmi e Figure is a testament to this interconnectedness, a reminder that the natural world is not separate from our existence.