LIFE WITHIN WALLS
by Timothée Ryan & Laura Stargala
2026
There are some walls that crumble with ease. They accept their fate, returning to the life and minerals below. Reclaimed by the land, licked by the wind and weather, eventually tumbling to the bottom of the valley or stream. These walls embrace uncertainty, fluidity, and change. Their impermanence is foreseen.
They provide shelter, land, and mineral nutrition to many forms of life. Ferns, mosses, and lichen grow on their surfaces. Birds and insects store their eggs knowing safety is provided. Bulbs and roots grow, surrounded by shells, flint, ceramic chards, chalk and earth. An entire world accumulates inside.
Life finds itself enclosed by walls, warm and protected by rain. Sleeping without fear, the walls define our second skin. Present in our origins, even in our cells, walls are elemental to the survival of bodies within.
A scalar shift in empathy hides in the irregularity of the wall. Creating groves from rain and weather- ing, the stones are rough and rugged. Expanding with warmth, contracting with frost, the stone begins to crumble. Leaves compost into earth and lichen breaks down the stone to turn into soil, forming a miniature ecosystem for life to thrive.
