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2026 (work in progress) · Pebbles, gelatin, cyanotype, 35mm black-and-white silver film · Bienno Borgo degli Artisti 2.0, Bienno, Italy
This work is currently in progress at the artist residency programme Bienno Borgo degli Artisti 2.0 in Bienno, Italy.
It began with a question: is the human capacity for faith universal, beyond region and ethnicity? The work draws on two different forms of devotion: the portable shrines (mikoshi) of Japanese Shinto and the Christian faith of Italy.
Bienno is an old town developed by monks in the early Middle Ages, and sacred statues stand on its street corners and along the mountain paths that lead to its monasteries. I photographed these statues and used generative AI to create frontal views that are difficult to capture in a photograph, and to remove the flowers and backgrounds surrounding the actual statues. I transferred these images onto 35mm black-and-white silver film and, from the film, printed them in cyanotype onto pebbles gathered from the mountain paths leading to monasteries and churches around Bienno. To make printing on stone possible, I developed a coating of gelatin and alum, inspired by dōsa, the sizing used in Nihonga (Japanese painting).
When complete, the pebbles will be gathered in a single wooden box as a “portable shrine”: a place of prayer that can be carried anywhere.
Source: a roadside shrine with a statue of the Virgin Mary, Bienno