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I’ve been living in Venice for just over a year, yet it took only a few months to see, feel, and understand that Venice is crumbling on multiple levels and in many directions. Here, pieces continue to be lost, but often the response is merely to look at what remains, without restoring what has been lost.

In November 2019, I was working on a puzzle depicting a famous painting of Venice (Friedrich Nerly, Grand Canal, 1840). I finished it just before the exceptional high tide on November 12, 2019. After that event, I felt compelled to remove 187 pieces—matching the centimeters of water recorded—thus dismantling and damaging in an instant something that had been created with time, care, patience, and effort.

We can no longer look at the painting the same way as before, just as we can no longer ignore that Venice is a delicate and fragile treasure we have not cared for enough. It’s time to change, gather the pieces, and put them back where they belong.