To look at Italy is to look through layers of time, to truly feel it requires a deeper excavation. This journal, Study Abroad: Reflexions from Italy, is a round collection of written entries, photography, video clips and architectural sketches capturing an experience in which flexible light constantly tangos with ancient shadows. By intentionally choosing the archaic spelling “reflexions,” this space shifts away from a passive, mirror-like reflection. Instead, it signals a flexing, a deliberate bending of the gaze, an intentional stretching of perspective, and a refusal to see history flatly. As a Black Indigenous American woman, stepping into the colossal weight of Italian architecture and art meant navigating the tension between breathtaking mastery and the quiet, systemic traumas embedded in the stone….while simultaneously immersing in the living artistry of the modern culture, finding deep beauty in unexpected moments of grace, and anchoring my journey in the blessing of friendship. Through the lens of a camera, the motion of film, and the sketchy lines of charcoal and ink, these pages document what happens when an empathetic eye interrogates the foundations of Western history. Stretch on a journey of looking more closely, feeling more deeply, and probing the physical and spiritual structures built around us.
Rome
Let’s discuss the hard part first.
The human form is so well-studied here. Bodies are painted, sculpted, and integrated into the very fabric of the art and architecture-accentuated, though sometimes left decapitated or amputated by the hands of time. The value of human life seems to be artistically uplifted, despite a colossal reality that would insinuate otherwise.
The heaviness of the Roman Colosseum, both materially and historically, was a lot to carry as an explorer. It was a space constructed for state-sanctioned spectacles… for massacres. Across centuries, hundreds of thousands of people and millions of animals were killed for political power and public entertainment.
My empathetic nature forced me to feel it all, the stone itself holds the memory.
Santa Marinella
Napoli
EUR District
Tivoli
Venice
Murano
Vicenza
Verona
Florence
Siena
Pisa
Lucca
Viareggio