Oculus is a solo exhibition of photographs made from with-inside ancient, living redwoods and sequoias in the American west. These giant trees are hollowed-out from millennia of lightning strikes and fires, and they form apertures to the sky and the canopy above. Though hollow, these trees remain very much alive and their charcoal dark interiors reveal strange shapes that suggest a passage from one recognizable world to another that is like a waking dream.
For Rome, every process in picture-making is a vehicle for considering meaning. The choice of black and white materials simplifies chaotic imagery into a form where a new visual order appears.
Rome places himself within the trees and uses the openings at the top as apertures, framing the sky. For him, these works are not meant to be photographic descriptions or documentation, but rather a catalyst designed to transport the viewer from a recognizable world into something original and unexpected.
