Ilán Rabchinskey

Foundation Stone 

Foundation Stone takes geology and the mineral kingdom as the central themes of a reflection on how human beings perceive that which is timeless and represents a form of unconditioned existence.

Through the creation of images of primitive matter as well as geological landscapes ––from small sections of sedimentary strata to views that stretch for kilometers–– I explore the concept of "the ordering principle of matter" that scientists and mystics alike have searched for throughout the centuries.

I am interested in what has historically been called the "mineral kingdom" because it exists in a much more extensive time than that of the human species (a time related to the creation and continuous ordering of the world), and also for its close relationship to the primal chemical elements, the building blocks of the physical dimension of reality.

The most visible and immediate representations of chemical compounds are minerals. The atoms of a mineral are arranged in a repetitive pattern that codifies and expresses itself in complex and uncanny angles and proportions. This form of pre-cultural and inorganic existence shows a mathematical perfection that, to some, might reveal the mark of a cosmic intelligence manifest in all matter.

These objects cause fascination because they seem to suggest that in them intangible forces are at work, that these forces surpass the objects physical reality and that, in some way, in them is written a code related to the mystery of origin.

In this respect the project not only poses questions about the elements that form the earth, it also questions the limits of human understanding of nature and the place we occupy in it. The guiding theme of these considerations is the concept of building blocks that form rocks, plants, animals, our bodies, the earth itself, the stars, and the universe in its entirety.

With the photographs of caves and grottoes intervened in situ with light, I wish to speak about geological processes which we perceive as extremely slow compared to the speed of human cycles. The geological landscape that took millions of years to form has only very recently interacted with humans. During the creation of these images, points of light form an ephemeral grid that is superimposed for a few minutes over an ancient canvas, suggesting the brief encounter of man and planet and generating a non-lineal representation of human and geological history.

As for the piece titled 120,000 light years, it is a handmade reproduction of the Milky Way created by placing lime deposits on a large black cloth. After this meticulous process the textile was illuminated and, once photographed, it was shaken so that the thousands of particles that formed its image dissipated in the air and the cloth remained vacant once again.

Foundation Stone is the result of a process that has brought me to photograph a range of subjects, from mineral specimens millions of years old in a studio to geological landscapes in Mexico, the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica.