Bouwwerkzaamheden in Brussel, België 1912

This photograph, "Bouwwerkzaamheden in Brussel, België," by Wesseling, captures a construction site, maybe back in the day, and it’s all monochrome, like a dream or a memory. Imagine Wesseling, dodging the dust and the noise, trying to frame the scene. What was going through their head? Were they fascinated by the raw energy of progress, or were they more aware of the disruption, the chaos of building something new? The photo has that quality, a tension between order and disorder. See how the scaffolding reaches up, a kind of skeleton against the sky? It reminds me how we build things, layer upon layer, idea upon idea. It's funny because painting is a construction too. It comes alive with the materiality of it, the surface, the tones and textures. Maybe Wesseling saw something similar, a kind of creative destruction. Artists see the world with their guts, translating it through their own sensibility. Each one of us brings something new to the conversation. That’s what keeps it going, this beautiful, messy dialogue across time.