“But it’s hard to stay sane here, in the shadows. It eats away at
you, knowing the walls have ears, that the windows have eyes.”
– Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
you, knowing the walls have ears, that the windows have eyes.”
– Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
I was born in 1996, at the margins of a small town in Southern Romania, in the wake of a crumbling system. Growing up in an environment where fear felt like a constant presence, I often found myself navigating the complexities of aggressive and controlling behaviors around me. The post-communist transition left scars not only on the society outside but also within the spirit of the house where I grew up. This project emerges from those early memories, where showing any part of myself, my thoughts, my voice, my expression, felt risky.
"In a Continuous Loop" visualizes this hidden tension. Through images of shadow, obscure interiors, and concealed spaces, I wanted to depict a life caught between the desire for self-expression and the compulsion to stay safe in silence. The home, usually seen as a sanctuary instead reflects an inner conflict, a reminder that control and fear could exist even in the spaces meant to protect us.
In those times, I learned to hide, to stay quiet, and to protect myself from a world that often felt unpredictable. Far from being a sanctuary, the house reflected an inner conflict: it was a place of shelter and silence, of control and fear. Its walls carried the weight of an era, and within them, a monster grew, a presence nurtured by the tension and mistrust of those times. Though I have left my hometown in my early twenties, it essence clings to me. It manifests in the ways that I approach the world, in patterns that replay themselves endlessly, looping back to old fears and defenses.
