THROUGH THE FROG’S EYE

Residency & Installation | Val Taleggio, Italy & Brooklyn, NY | 2020-2025

Rooted in the belief that an ontological shift requires a perceptual shift, this project invites viewers to experience Val Taleggio’s landscape through the frogs’ eyes and to recognize the rich environment that makes up their habitats. I trace the frog’s habitats from the riverbank, the most unconstructed environment, to the edge of the “Iaacs” (ponds) that are located in the high pastures, to the most constructed habitat - the concrete water tanks that dot entire valley’s landscape.

The frog’s vision offers a view of the landscapes that often go unnoticed yet are exceedingly vibrant and full of life - the soil, the small rocks, the water, the beech and the birch leaf litters where the frogs can hide from predators, the Saxifrage’s lacy foliage that offers refuge from the sun, the small pondweed leaf’s on which they lay eggs, the tangled aqueous duckweed’s roots among which their tadpoles dwell…

Historically, landscape, a term that emerged in the 15th and early 16th century is a deeply humanist idea and profession. The animals’ viewpoints reveal an alternative way of looking and working with landscapes–shifting from the traditional landscape way of seeing the world, one that organizes around the composition of space and the perspective view of a detached individual outside of the landscape, to a practice that consists of active engagement with a living world of which all things (plants, animals, humans…) is a part of.

The project includes observing the animal’s habitats, recording them through sketches and photographs, and representing this environment through technical drawings and hand-made panoramas. Drawings created from this Residency were enlarged and exhibited as part of the The Weight of Words Forming in the Mouth, curated by Sarah Valeri.