Liminal

Liminal explores a threshold state in which perception has not yet stabilized into a single image. The work is composed of pietre paesine, natural stones traditionally found near Florence, whose veining and mineral formations resemble landscapes, mountains, or horizons. By placing multiple stones side by side, the work constructs a fragmented landscape that seems to emerge from the material itself. In Japanese culture, stones that evoke mountains or natural landscapes are known as suiseki: naturally shaped rocks contemplated as condensed landscapes. The stone does not directly represent a mountain, but suggests it through perception and imagination. The mind is naturally driven to choose what it sees, to stabilize one image within multiplicity. Yet, as in quantum physics, multiple states can coexist simultaneously before a single reality is determined. The work exists in this condition: it is both rock and landscape at the same time. In this sense, it recalls the paradox of Erwin Schrödinger’s cat, suspended between coexisting states — alive and dead — until observation selects one possibility without completely erasing the others.